My Hero Spider-Man
by Spider Pro
Summary: During a field trip to the Tokyo Research Lab, a strange spider finds its way to Izuku Midoriya. But not just any spider, one with a quirk! A quirk that allows it to pass on it’s inherent abilities to others. Now imbued with spectacular powers, Midoriya finally has a chance to get into the prestigious U.A. High School! IzukuxHarem
1. Trip to the Tokyo Research Lab!

The sound of clamoring students filled the middle school classroom in the short time before their teacher arrived. Every student fought to be heard above their classmates. That is, every student except one. One boy with dark green hair and large emerald eyes sat in the back of the class saying nothing. He wanted to talk to others, he really did. But he didn't have a single friend among the other students. Unless you counted the ash blonde boy sitting in front of him.

Looking at the clock, the boy saw that there was still a good amount of time before their teacher would arrive. He reached into his backpack hanging from the side of his desk and pulled out a notebook. As he did so, the blonde boy in front of him turned back at the noise. His eyes hardened when he saw the notebook. On it, the words "Hero Analysis for the Future" were written.

He watched the boy open it and start writing. "Deku," he said, his voice low.

Deku looked up, making eye contact for a split second before looking down again. "What is it, Kacchan?" His voice wavered in fear.

"I told you to stop calling me that, damnit. Gimme that!" He snatched the book from the boy's desk, earning a squeak from him. "Hero analysis, huh? I thought I told you to drop this shit. I oughta burn this up right now."

"Wait, Kacchan! I spent so long on that!" He knew his protests would do him no good.

"Like I care. I've been telling you since we were kids that you'd never be a hero!" He glared at the boy through slitted eyes. "You're worthless, Deku."

The classroom door slid open. "Katsuki Bakugo, Izuku Midoriya, stop this fighting at once!" The teacher called. "Bakugo, please return Midoriya's notebook." Bakugo's tsked at him, ready to burn the damn thing up. "In one piece, of you please." Reluctantly, Bakugo handed the notebook back Midoriya. "Right. Now does everyone have their permission slips?" One by one, students started pulling papers out of their bags and passing them to the front. "Alright, everyone! We have a long trip ahead of us. We'll take the bullet train to Kameido Station and walk the rest of the way." The class groaned in protest. "It's only a fifteen minute walk to the Kao Museum. Most of you have longer walks home."

Midoriya's eyes lit up. He'd been told they were going on a field trip, but he hadn't been told where it would be. Only that is was in Tokyo. "Are we going to visit the Tokyo Research Lab as well?" He looked expectantly at the teacher.

The teacher thought for a moment. "I suppose we could stop by on our way out," he said.

Midoriya's eyes widened in excitement. He wasn't a science nerd by any means, but the Tokyo Research Lab was also home to the greatest hero support workers in the country. He could get the chance to see a hero's new gadget before they ever used it!

One by one the students filed out of the classroom and started they're walk to the train station. By this time, the hustle and bustle of the city had calmed down now that most people were at work or school. Midoriya trailed at the back of the class, content with psyching himself up to see the research lab.

Bakugo took side glances back at him now and then. He wanted nothing more than to grab that notebook of his and fry it, but the teacher would notice and he knew he'd get in trouble. 'After class then, nerd,' he thought.

The train ride was uneventful and before they knew it they had arrived. Most of the students oohed and aahed at the exhibits but were now more excited to see the Lab like Midoriya.

When the class finally entered the Lab their anticipation was almost at the boiling point. They were almost floored by what they saw. The place was huge. There was a huge open space at the center that went all the way to the skylight. The wall was lined with doors that went into different departments on each floor, eight in total. Test drones flew the unoccupied space, a holographic directory sat in the middle of the room, and so many other cool things!

The students stood open mouthed, too busy taking it all in to notice one of the lab assistants approaching. "Thank you for coming. We're happy to have you," she said politely. "If you'd like, I can take you on a tour of the facilities."

The teacher turned toward her and gave a polite bow. "Thank you, that would be wonderful." He straightened and urged his students to follow the assistant. The technology being made there was cool enough to catch even Bakugo's attention. The students ogled at devices they understood they'd probably never get to own.

The last lab the assistant showed them was different from the others. It focused on researching animals and wether or not they could posses quirks. When they passed the spiders she noted that one of them was missing and excused herself to inform one of her seniors.

Not long after she left, Midoriya felt a tickling sensation on the back of his neck. Then he heard a shriek behind him and one of his female classmates shouted something resembling the word "spider." At that moment the tickling sensation was replaced with an awful, piercing pain. Automatically, his hand flew to the back of his neck and slapped down. When he pulled his hand back there was a slightly squished spider. It was purplish in color. Suddenly he felt fingers at his neck as one of the assistants examined what was apparently a spider bite. Then his hand was taken as one of the scientists studied the spider that lay in it.

He stood up and sighed. Then, addressing the whole room, he said "Found our missing spider!" He turned back to Midoriya. "This was one of our duds anyway, so you should be fine. Just don't scratch it and it'll be fine." With that he walked away, spider in hand, and left the students with the assistant once again.

"I think this is a good place to stop," she said and gave a nervous laugh.

The train ride back was a bit more lively than the first one, with students clamoring around Midoriya to see what a bite from a "science spider" was like. Needless to say, he was just a little claustrophobic by the time the train brought them home. The students stepped off the train with Midoriya bringing up the rear again. Suddenly his eyes clouded over and he fell face first toward the pavement. He was vaguely aware of a hand on his chest catching him before he blacked out.

Midoriya slowly opened his eyes. His room was pitch black. 'How long was I out,' he thought. He turned to look at his alarm clock. '2:00 AM!' He jumped out of bed, stumbling around from the unexpected force of it. 'I'm thirsty,' he thought. He made his way to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

When he reached the kitchen, he heard something move behind him. Panicked, he jumped, his eyes closed. When he opened them again, he was face to face with the ceiling. He was about to scream when he heard more movement. He looked up (or down?) and saw his mom come into the kitchen.

"Izuku, is that you, baby?" While she moved about the room looking for him, on instinct, Midoriya's hand moved off the ceiling and forward.

'I can't let her see this until I know what's going on,' he thought. Slowly he made his way out of the kitchen, praying that his mother wouldn't look up, and back to his room. He breathed a sigh of relief as he willed whatever was keeping him stuck to the wall to turn off. Suddenly the world moved in slow motion as he fell from the ceiling straight to the floor, right beside his bed.

He heard footsteps outside his door and his mother came in. "Oh, Izuku. You must be really sick! You haven't rolled out of your bed since you were eight!"

Seeing his way out, Midoriya seized upon it. "Yeah! I forgot what it feels like!" He gave a nervous laugh as he stood up. "But I'm not really sick. I think I was just tired." If it wasn't for him having to lie about bruises and scorch marks so often, she might have caught on that something was off.

"I was so worried when Katsuki brought you home! You looked half dead!" She started fussing over him again.

Now that last thought got to him. "Wait. Kacchan brought me home," he asked.

His mother nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, he carried you on his back all the way from the train station. He said you didn't look very good." She looked him up and down looking for any sign of something wrong. Satisfied that her son was fine, she turned to leave. "Well, since you look like you're better, I'm going back to bed." She was almost out the door when she stopped and turned her head back. "By the way, you might want to change out of your uniform," she said, giving him a pointed look that said, loud and clear, 'do as I say.'

When the door closed, Midoriya allowed himself a little freak out time. Meaning silently screaming for an hour. When he finally calmed down enough for rational thought to take over again he started contemplating how he got his powers. No one in his family had a quirk that let them stick to walls so that was out. But then how did he get them? Eventually he decided that that was a question for future Midoriya and started getting changed.

When he took his shirt off he glanced at himself in the mirror above his dresser. He was almost floored by what he saw. Muscle! He could make out every single muscle on his chest, his abs, and his arms. But while he was toned he wasn't overly bulky, so you couldn't even see a difference with his shirt on. He took a moment to admire himself for a bit.

Now more curious about his powers, Midoriya decided that he should experiment sooner rather than later, lest he find himself unable to control them at school. Quietly as he could, he opened his window, and, shirtless and barefoot, started climbing out his window. He put a hand on the outside wall and gave an experimental pull. It stayed in place, almost like superglue. He noticed that only his fingertips stuck and not his whole hand. Carefully, he started climbing up the wall to the rooftop of his apartment.

Safely on the roof, Midoriya decided that some stretches might be good. He was immediately surprised when he went to touch his toes that he felt no pull at all. First he put his hands flat on the ground. Then his forearms. Amazed, he started going through stretch after stretch and finding he could twist and contort his body in ways most would think impossible. "Apparently agility is another part of my powers," he said to himself.

He remembered in the kitchen when he had jumped straight to the ceiling. "Time to test my jumping limits." He squatted down and leapt straight into the air. He looked down at his peak and balked. '15 meters?!' He was now afraid of hurting himself when he came down. But when he landed, his legs automatically bent in such a way that they absorbed the impact, his shoulders coming to a stop between his knees, and his fingertips placed delicately on the ground below his chest.

After that it was easy to make the connection. "This is all just like a spider," he said. He flashed back to the lab where the spider bit him. "They said they were researching quirks in animals. What if that spider wasn't a dud after all?"

After that, he started running through the possibilities of maximizing his powers. He had a flash of his history teacher telling them about the first heroes. There was a spider themed hero and he used webs to swing around the city. Man-Spider? It didn't really matter. Now he had a new goal. He had to find someone who could make something like that for him.

By the time he looked up, he saw that the sun was coming up. Deciding that there wasn't anything more he could do right now, he crawled back into his room to get ready for the day.

 **A/N: Whew! That was fun. I realize Spider-Deku stories aren't that hard to find, but most of them don't go on for very long. So I want to keep this going for a while. Right now I know I want IzuOcha in this, but if you want more pairings or even a harem, let me know! I'm interested in seeing how something like that plays out. So, how's Deku gonna get his hands on those web shooters? The one who guesses right gets a cookie!**


	2. An Encounter With Number 1!

**A/N: Sooooo... um. Sorry for the late update. This is really at the bottom of my list of things to do. I'm an artist by nature, not a writer. Like an idiot, I started writing this right after I started working on a huge piece of animation for my YouTube channel. You know what they say. A jack of all trades is a master of none. Unfortunately, YouTube content takes priority over fanfiction. On that note, I'm working on an animated adaptation of the Yu-Gi-Oh! R manga, a part of the original story that was never adapted. You can see updates for it on my channel, Studio Spider on YouTube. Alright, that's enough shilling. Back to the story! By the way, I'm gonna skip some of the exposition about One For All and All Might, since everyone reading this should have it memorized by now.**

One thing that Midoriya had noticed very early on when he was back at school was that he was stronger. A LOT stronger. He was struggling all day to hide this fact from those around him, to varying degrees of success. He noticed that the sharp eyes of Bakugo had been trained on him all day, and he was worried that he'd slipped up one too many times around him.

During class, the teacher had discussed with them where they all wanted to go for high school. Bakugo had jumped up and declared that he would be the first one from this school to get into U.A.. Of course Midoriya wanted to get into that school as well, but he didn't voice this fact.

After school when everyone had already packed up and gone home, Midoriya took out his Hero Notebook and started writing in it. He wrote down everything he had discovered about his powers so far.

'So obviously I can climb walls. But how does it work? Is it some kind of adhesive? Or is it a protrusion? I'll figure that out later. Next I have super strength. That's good and all, but what if I accidentally hurt someone? I can't exactly control it right now.' The thoughts blurred through his mind. Almost before he finished one, another one was forming.

Suddenly there was a tingling sensation in the back of his head. 'What's that?' His right hand moved on it's own, carrying the notebook with it, as a hand came down where it had been just a second before. His eyes snapped up to the owner of the hand, seeing Bakugo's piercing red eyes. A part of him was instinctively scared of him, while the rest of his brain knew he would at least have to try harder to hurt him now.

"Those are some pretty good reflexes there. Get a good night's sleep?" Bakugo grinned down at the boy. Midoriya shot a defiant look at him. "Well look who grew a spine!" The grin disappeared. "If you think you're big enough to take me on, then do something, nerd." Midoriya stood up from his chair without saying a word and turned to put his notebook back in his bag. Irritated at being ignored, Bakugo got ready to strike. "Don't think you can just ignore me, you damn nerd!" He threw his open hand at the back of his head, ready to blast him.

The tingling sensation was back in full force, and before his brain had any time to react, his body moved for him. He spun to the left, around his chair, and out of the way of the hand that had been coming for his head. A small explosion went off in the palm of Bakugo's hand right where his head had been. Bakugo stood there, a dumbfounded expression on his face.

It was quickly replaced by anger. "How'd you do that?! There's no way a quirkless nobody like you could have dodged that!" Bakugo was furious. Not only had the nerd apparently gotten stronger all of a sudden, but now he could do things most people WITH quirks couldn't do.

Midoriya stood there, amazed at himself. He was brought out of his reverie by Bakugo's yelling. 'Crap! I'm gonna die!' He thought. Quick as he could, he grabbed his bag and rushed toward the door. He heard more furious yelling behind him but didn't stop. The front doors of the school burst open as he ran for his life.

After a while of running and not hearing footsteps behind him, he slowed down. 'I guess he's not chasing me,' he thought. He stopped to catch his breath. 'But he must have realized something's different.' He stood leaning against a building for a short time contemplating his next move. He took his notebook from his bag to examine it. Such a simple thing that held so much worth only to him. He grabbed out his pen to add a new entry on himself. It read, 'Sense danger?' After determining that there was nothing he could do for now, he started heading for home.

As he crossed under a bridge, he felt something wrong. 'The tingling! Again?' Unable to move fast enough this time, Midoriya found himself trapped in a substance somewhere between a solid and a liquid. 'What is this?' He thought, the tingling ever present and more insistent than ever.

"Sorry, kid. It's nothing personal, but I need a body to hide out in for a while," a voice said. Was it coming from the... sludge? A villain! Midoriya tried to escape, but with nothing solid to grab onto, his efforts were wasted. "Sorry, kid. Nowhere to run," the villain said. Midoriya kept struggling even as he felt something invade his mouth and nostrils to prevent him from breathing.

Vision going dark, Midoriya had what he assumed would be his final thought. 'No. I can't die like this. Mom will be heartbroken.' Then everything went black.

The gears in Midoriya's head started turning again, slow and rusty now from lack of oxygen. He could faintly feel something tapping his cheek. Much as he wanted to ignore it and go back to sleep, he couldn't. It was just too distracting. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the harsh rays of the sun, before they were covered by a shadow. He turned his head toward the source of that shadow, and was instantly awake.

"Ah! You're awake! Thought we'd lost you there!" The man righted himself while Midoriya scrambled to stand. "I took care of that villain, don't you worry!"

Midoriya stood with his mouth agape, staring at the giant of a man before him. "A- A- A-" God, he couldn't even speak because he was so starstruck. "All Might!" He finally got out. He started frantically looking around for his notebook, only to find it laying open on the ground next to him. He picked it up quickly. "Could you sign my-" he cut himself off when he looked down at the pages. "You already signed it!?" He bowed deeply to the imposing figure. "Thank you very much!"

"Ha ha! Don't mention it. I must say I enjoyed reading through some of your notes. You're quite the observant one, aren't you?" That caused the boy to blush in embarrassment. Praise from the number one hero wasn't something everyone got. "Well, I've gotta go drop this guy off for the police!" With that, he turned and squatted down, readying himself for a jump. And then he quite literally took off, sending the air into a whirlwind in his wake. He frowned though when he reached his apex, coming much shorter than he was used to. One look down at his leg told him why. The boy from earlier was hanging onto him, a determined look on his face. "Hey, kid! You can't just grab onto me like that!" He yelled, not really because he was mad at him for invading his space, but because he could have gotten hurt.

"Sorry!" He yelled back. "I just have one question for you!" The fire in his eyes was something All might hadn't seen in someone so young since-.

"Alright! One question!" He found a suitable place to land and, conscious of the extra body, landed with a grace uncommon for people of his stature. He waited until the kid had safely disengaged himself from his leg before he moved away. "Alright, I'd say you've effectively grabbed my attention. What's your question, young man?" He asked, trying his best to keep his irritation and impatience out of his voice, the smile never leaving his face.

Midoriya thought for a moment on how to word this. Should he tell him about his powers and how he thought he received them? Or tell him he was a late bloomer? Or just say that he had no powers at all? Hands balled into fists at his sides, he found his answer and looked up to face his idol. "Up until yesterday, I didn't have any powers. I guess you could call me a late bloomer. Being quirkless most of my life, I was picked on by other kids. Even when I went to the hospital as a child, the doctors told me I would never develop a quirk. But now that I have, I'm scared of what they mean. I've wanted to be a hero my whole life, and now that dream is in my grasp, but I'm scared out of my mind." During his speech, he didn't notice the steam emanating from the figure before him.

'I should get out of here,' All Might thought. 'But I want to hear his question. His story sure does sound awfully familiar.'

"I don't know how to use my new powers. I'm scared I could easily kill someone if I lost focus. But I still want to use my new powers to help those in need. I guess my question is, should I still pursue my dream of becoming a hero, even if I'm scared of what it could lead to?" His head had dropped during his speech, so when he picked it back up, he was shocked by the sight before him. Standing in place of the living legend, was a skeleton of a man, spewing blood from his mouth. "WHAAA! Who are you? Where's All Might?"

"Calm down kid-" he started before coughing up more blood, which caused the boy to yell in shock again. "I assure you, I am All Might," he said, wiping the blood from his mouth.

"But that's not right. All Might is a giant of a man, standing tall with a fearless smile on his face," Midoriya said.

All Might smiled a sad smile before sitting down. "There's plenty of fear behind that smile," he said. He lifted his shirt, exposing a horrid wound covering a third of his torso. He went on to explain when he got the wound, stating that he hadn't sustained it in any public fights. "Heroes have to make tough calls every day. If you're too busy worrying about what could happen instead of what you need to do in the moment, you'd only be a liability in the field." He stood up and faced him again. "So no, I honestly don't think you should become a hero as long as you're in this state of mind."

Midoriya stood there, almost shell shocked. All his life he'd been told he could never become a hero because he was quirkless. And now that he had one, his idol himself had told him it was something still out of reach. "Right. I understand," he said, looking downcast.

All Might started on his way to the roof access door. "There are plenty of other fine, heroic jobs where you don't need to make those decisions. Police officers get a lot of flack for not really doing anything, but it's a fine profession." With that, the door closed behind him, leaving Midoriya alone with his thoughts.

Eventually, he started back down the building himself, opting to crawl down on the outside instead. He didn't feel like going home just yet so he decided he'd wander the city for a while. In the back of his mind, he heard explosions somewhere. He didn't even realize where he was until he felt the heat of the fire. What he saw when he looked up brought his dead eyes back to life. There, in the middle of the shopping district, was Bakugo, struggling against the same slime villain that had attacked him earlier in the day.

Without a second thought, he ditched his shoes and ran full speed toward the scene, past protesting heroes, a new fire in his eye. He scooped up a sizable rock on his way, not even slowing down when he dropped. It felt so light in his hands, even though it was more than half the size of his head, like a baseball. He threw it full force at the villain, hitting it square in the eye. The shock and pain were enough to get him to drop his now unconscious hostage. Midoriya practically flew in, scooping him up, and bounding away before the villain could recover. He perched himself on the wall, holding Bakugo with one hand by the waist.

'Well great, I got Kachan out of there, but now what? I still don't have enough strength to actually beat him. All my attacks would slip right through,' he thought. 'And I can't leave the shopping district without him following me.' He dodged an attack by jumping onto another building. And another. And another. 'Crap. Even with my increased stamina, I'm still running out of steam.'

"Hey, Kachan! Now would be a great time to wake up so you could blast this guy!" He dodged another attack.

That's when he heard it. A mighty laugh coming from the crowd. And All Might was there. "I really am pathetic!" Midoriya heard him say. "Standing back and watching, thinking I was helpless!" He pulled his fist back. "Texas SMAAASH!" The kickback from his punch moved the clouds. And it started raining. "But kid," he said, looking up at him, "you reminded me of why I became a hero in the first place. To save people, like your friend there."

After that, the heroes chewed Midoriya out pretty good. They heaped praise on Bakugo as soon as he was awake though. After a strange encounter with him on his way home, Midoriya noticed a man standing in front of his house, seemingly waiting for him.

"Ah, there you are, young man. I've been waiting for you," he said turning to greet him. That's when Midoriya recognized him. It was All Might in his bony form. "I wanted to say thank you." Midoriya gave him a confused look. "Not an hour after I was lecturing you on what it takes to be a hero, I found myself in that crowd, thinking I had no way to help your friend. Then when you arrived, you didn't hesitate to jump in, even with your mental hangups about your power." He smiled down at the boy, who had tears in his eyes. "You reminded me that we always need to push past our limits, wether they're physical or mental. So, I've changed my answer. Young man, you can become a hero."

Midoriya fell to his knees, clutching at his chest. There it was. The words he always wanted, needed, to hear. From the man he admired most.

"And so, I've decided that you'll carry on my legacy. My quirk is yours to inherit." That got his attention. All Might went on to explain how his quirk worked, and how it could be transferred. Midoriya, confused at first, readily accepted the responsibility presented to him.

With a promise to meet at the beach for training the next day, Midoriya went into his home.

Degobah Municipal Beach

When Midoriya arrived that morning, All Might was already there, in his real form. "Good morning!" He called as he ran up to meet him.

All Might turned to face him as he approached. "Good morning, young Midoriya. I hope you got enough sleep," he greeted. With a simple nod as an answer, he turned his attention to the beach in front of them. Well, it looked like it could have been a beach since they could see the ocean. But the land was covered in garbage. "Are you ready for your first task as a hero?" Another nod. "This place used to be pretty popular and was filled with people every weekend," he started.

Midoriya nodded again. "Until people started dumping here illegally," he finished.

"Right," All Might replied. "So your first task is to clean this place up." He waited for a protest from the boy. Something along the lines of, 'This isn't what heroes do!' But all he saw when he looked back at him was determination. "Since I don't know the upper limits of your strength, we'll test that out today. Afterwards, I'll write up a training regimen for you."

"Then let's get started!" Midoriya said as he made his way down to the beach, All Might in tow.

"Start with the lighter stuff and work your way up. Let me know when you start having to strain yourself to move something. That will give us the baseline to work from," All Might instructed.

After lifting much of the garbage with ease, Midoriya found that he definitely had trouble moving a fridge. All Might took note of that. By the time lunch had rolled around, more of the beach had been cleared than he had expected, and he called it quits for the day. The boy was looking really worn out. 'Good,' he thought. That meant there was room for improvement.

The next day, All Might presented Midoriya with his "Aim to Pass American Dream" plan. It detailed a workout schedule on and off the beach, and a diet set just for him. School continued as normal, though Midoriya did find himself struggling to keep up with the work.

About a month into his training, All Might had stopped coming to watch him for his whole routine, opting instead to check in on him periodically.

Midoriya grunted with the effort of loading a fridge onto the pickup truck All Might had rented. "HEEEY!" He almost dropped it on himself at the new voice. He turned to see a girl about his age with pink hair approaching. She didn't look happy. "So you're the one stealing all my materials!" She came right up to him as he finished loading the fridge, getting a little too close for comfort. Up close he could see what looked like crosshairs in her yellow eyes. "What do you think you're doing anyway," she asked him.

Midoriya took a step back. "O-oh, I'm cleaning the beach up," he replied. "Is there a problem," he asked with a nervous smile.

"I just told you. You're stealing all my materials," she replied.

"Materials for what," he asked.

She looked up at him in confusion for a second before she realized she hadn't introduced herself. "Oh right. I'm Mei Hatsume, inventor extraordinaire!" She announced, a smile on her face. "And I use the stuff here to make all my wonderful babies!" She took a second to think. "Why are you cleaning this place up anyway?"

Midoriya wasn't sure how he should answer, so he answered honestly. "I'm training to get into UA," he said.

He almost flinched when he saw how her eyes lit up at the mention of the school. "UA? That's where I'm going! Support course obviously. You're aiming for the hero program? What's your quirk? How does it work? How strong are you?"

Midoriya had to back up, he put his hands between them, but she kept advancing on him. "Easy! One at a time!" He said. That got her attention. He took a deep breath. "Alright. In order, yes I'm aiming for the hero program, I have the abilities of a spider, and I'm not sure how strong I am. I'm still working on it. I know I can move a car without too much effort if that helps." He could see her eyes, zooming in(?) on him.

"If you have the abilities of a spider, does that mean you're super agile?" She started. That earned her a nod. "Can you stick to surfaces and climb walls?" Another nod. "Oh! Can you make webs?" He shook his head at that and she frowned. "A spider who can't spin webs is pretty useless doncha think?"

"Hey, it's not my fault," he replied indignantly. "With or without them, I'm gonna be the number one hero in the world!" He didn't know why, but he was slightly scared by the twinkle she got in her eye.

"I just got a great idea!" She was practically bouncing up and down like a kid. "You're aiming to be a famous hero, and you got the quirk to do it! So I'll be your personal support team! You can show off all my wonderful babies to the world!" Her smile just kept getting bigger. "Everyone will see my gear on a famous hero! My mind is flooding with possibilities! Bring some of this stuff by my workshop and I'll see what I can whip up!" She pulled out a notepad and a pen and wrote down an address on it before tearing out the page and handing it to him. "Oh, right. I almost forgot to ask your name," she added as an after thought.

Midoriya sweat dropped. "You gave your address to someone you just met without even asking their name?" He deadpanned.

"You said you were training to be a hero right? A hero would never do something untoward to a woman like me right?"

Midoriya sighed. "My name's Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you, Hatsume."

Her eyes lit up again. "Great! Come by whenever you're done here. See ya later, Midoriya!" With that she took her leave, back the way she came.

"Okay, that was weird," he said looking back down at the slip of paper she handed him. "But I am curious," he admitted.

He loaded up a couple more things into the flatbed and drove to the address she gave him. Turns out her workshop was the garage of her parents home. When he walked in through the open garage door, he noticed a flash of light in one corner accompanied by the sound of electricity. Not wanting to disturb her, he took a seat in an empty chair and waited until she was done.

When she came out almost ten minutes later, he was almost asleep. He jolted back to reality at her call of, "Spider boy?" Instantly awake, he stood to greet her.

"It's Midoriya, actually," he corrected.

"I'm terrible with names," was her answer. "Not important. You got here quick," she observed.

Midoriya shrugged. "I was almost done for the day when you showed up," he replied.

"Well this works out great!" She said. "I can get started sooner than I thought." She went over to one of her workbenches to grab something and came back. "Give me your hand," she said offering her own. He hesitated for a moment, but at her insistent look he relented, placing his hand in hers, fighting off a blush. She brandished what looked like calipers and started measuring up and down his forearm, twisting and turning it as she needed. She took a moment to write down the measurements she took. "Alright, if you can just unload all that stuff, we'll be done for the day," she said gesturing to the pickup.

Midoriya turned back to her. "What were those measurements for?"

She just grinned at him and said, "You'll see." She went back to the workbench and started working on whatever it was she was making for him. "As payment, you can start bringing that stuff from the beach here every day. And become a famous hero," she said.

One week later.

Midoriya was just pulling into Hatsume's driveway, hauling an assortment of electronics and other metal trash, when he saw her burst out of her garage, excitement lighting up her face. He hadn't even closed the car door before she was in his face. "Good, you're here!" She grabbed his arm and started pulling him inside. "I just finished this, and I need you to test it." Now she had him worried. She shoved a pair of gauntlets(?) at him. They were simple metal cylinders, shaped into roughly the shape of his wrists. "Put those on," she instructed.

Midoriya did as he was told. He found a latch on the sides and they opened into two halves. He placed them around his wrists and latched them shut again. They fit snuggly, not moving. Out of them came a button that rested in the palm of his hand. Realization dawned on him as he stared at the device. "Hatsume, are these-"

"Yep," she answered. "See that far wall over there?" She gestured to the wall at the back of the garage, a hastily painted target on it. "Try to get a bullseye." She walked away to get a better view.

Midoriya turned back to the target and took aim with his right hand, palm up. He hit the button with his two middle fingers and- Nothing. He turned back to Hatsume. "Um, am I doing it wrong?"

He could practically see the lightbulb above her head go off. "Oh, right. Double click it," she instructed.

Midoriya blanched at her but turned back to the target and took aim again. He double clicked the button and- THWIP! A line of webbing shot out like a bullet from his wrist. He heard Hatsume give an excited squeal from his right. It worked beautifully. The only problem-

"I missed," he said. He ended up hitting five feet off from his target.

Hatsume came back up to him. "That's fine. It'll probably take some time to get your aim just right," she said. "You can take these with you to practice. They're just the prototype. I'm working on making them more compact." She went over to her workbench to grab something for him. "Here are some spare cartridges. To reload it, just press on this thing," she pointed to the sectioned off piece of metal that the button's wire led to, "and it'll pop out. Then you slide this in like a battery."

Midoriya nodded. He asked if she needed anything else. She said no, she didn't, so he unloaded the truck for her. "Would it be alright if I practiced here," he asked. "I'm keeping this a secret from my mom," he explained.

"Sure, knock yourself out. But if you're gonna be in the way, you gotta help out," she told him. "Just some heavy lifting. I wouldn't trust you near any of my tools." She giggled at the offended expression on his face.

 **A/N: Again, sorry for the late update. I think this might be the norm and not the exception, considering all the things I have going on in the background. I did post an in progress video of that animation I mentioned at the start while I was writing if you're curious. As for the story, seems people are divided on the harem idea, but leaning towards it. So for now, I'm gonna start setting up for that but you'll have another couple chapters to change my mind. Also, I'm thinking of renaming the story, but I'm shit with names (clearly) so leave me suggestions on what the story should be called. And remember to go beyond! Plus ultra!**


	3. Rocky Debut of the Amazing Spider-Man!

Midoriya pulled into Hatsume's driveway, towing a trailer with him. In the trailer was a car, scrap from the beach. It wasn't the first car he had delivered for her, but it would be the first he could lift in the two months since he met her. He was still amazed at how he was getting so much stronger so quickly. As he got out out of the car, he heard a crash from the garage.

"Izuku, is that you," he heard her call from inside. She had taken to using his first name.

"Yeah, Mei," He called back. She had insisted that he use her first name too. "I brought another car." She liked to take her time disassembling them so he didn't bring them by as often.

"Great," he heard. "Just leave it in the drive, I'll push it in later," she said as came out holding a box. "As long as you're bringing me stuff, these are finally done." She pushed the box toward him.

Midoriya took it from her, excitement lighting up his features. He opened it up. Inside were two new web shooters that were, as promised, much smaller than the prototypes. "Awesome!" He replaced the lid. "I'll try them out after I get everything unloaded," he said. He went to the trailer and set up their homemade ramp. He grabbed the back end of the scrap car, lifting with practiced ease, before maneuvering himself to the middle and lifting the rest of the car. He made his way carefully down the ramp and set the car down on the driveway. When he stood up, he saw Hatsume staring at him with her mouth gaping open, eyes wide. "What," he asked self consciously.

"What?" She parroted. "You just lifted a freaking car!" She was immediately at his side, feeling up and down his arm, her eyes zooming in and out like crazy. Midoriya tried his best not to freak out at her invasion of his personal space. It was just how she was, he told himself, even if his face did light up like a Christmas tree every time she did something like this. "By all means, you shouldn't be strong enough to do that," she murmured half to herself.

"Funny thing, really," he said as he disengaged his arm from her. "Remember that nasty cut I got on my leg last month?" He had been struggling to get a car off the trailer, pulling it by the back bumper when it just snapped off. It had fallen out of his hands and slid down his leg, the jagged pc framing leaving a trail of blood in it's wake.

She nodded. "I remember. It was healed the next day," she said.

Midoriya continued. "Yeah. So part of my powers is super healing." She nodded. "So it makes sense that that would apply to all injuries right?" She nodded again. "Like muscles tearing themselves during a workout." Realization dawned on her face.

"It takes most people weeks for their microbes to reform after tearing them in a workout," she said. "But you're doing that every night! Your workouts are self accelerated by quicker healing!" Then, like a switch being flipped, she bolted into her garage.

Midoriya stared after her. "Mei," he called.

"Got an idea," came her quick reply.

He shook his head. He finished unloading the truck before grabbing his backpack and new web shooters. "I'm gonna go change real quick," he said as he walked past her to the door to her house. She hummed, letting him know she heard him. It had started incredibly awkward, changing at her house, but it became routine for them. He would bring her stuff from the beach after his workout, change in her bathroom, then come back to the garage to practice with the web shooters.

He came back out, decked in blue jeans and a simple white t-shirt covered by an unbuttoned black button down short sleeve shirt. He went to throw his backpack back into the truck before donning his new web shooters. He had gotten much better with his aim in the last month and a half. Now he could hit the target at least.

Midoriya spent the better part of an hour at Hatsume's house, helping her move stuff every now and then. She would never tell him what it was she was making for him, only that he would love it. And he was fine with that. She hadn't told him about the web shooters after all, and he loved using them. Whatever she made for him, he would be happy with.

"See ya, Mei," he said on his way out. She hummed. Midoriya shook his head. She always got like this when she got a new idea. He paused and turned back to her. "Try to sleep tonight. Please." He had come by on more than one occasion to find her with bags under her eyes that would make you feel tired yourself.

"Yeah, yeah," she replied.

He dropped the truck off by the beach, ready for his jog back home. The sun was going down, tinting the sky in orange. 'The sunset will look even better when the beach is clean,' he thought to himself. Just as he turned away from the beach, a car came around a corner to his left and raced past him, clearly speeding. "What the-" then he heard sirens. A cop car came around the same corner, lights flashing, sirens wailing. There was gunfire. He looked to the first car and noticed someone leaning out, pointing a gun at the car behind it.

Just like with Bakugo, his body moved on it's own. He ditched his shoes and ran up the nearest building, using webs to propel himself up faster. Once at the top, he looked around for the chase again. Then realization hit him. "Crap. What am I doing? I'm not a hero. I can't use my quirk." More gunfire came from below him and he saw a civilian hit the ground. He looked around desperately. No heroes in sight. "Damnit. I gotta do something." He stared down at his wrist as he mumbled. Then he got a great, and possibly really stupid idea. He found the chase again. And jumped. As he fell toward the ground, he raised his arm, pointing it at a random building, and pressed the trigger. The web caught, and he grabbed on for dear life.

He wasn't prepared for the centripetal force and almost lost hold of the web. He managed to make it through the bottom of the arc and was thrown skyward so quickly, he almost forgot to let go of the line. He looked down, trying to keep track of the villains as he swung. They turned hard to the right, causing cars to swerve and collide. He pointed his right arm at a corner building and fired, wrapping the web around his hand this time so he wouldn't fly off. The force carried him around instead of down, slingshotting him past his target. "Crap!" He tried to turn in midair, but couldn't move the wind enough. "Please work," he said as he pointed behind him where he thought the car was. He latched onto something that didn't pull on him. "Missed the ground at least," he sighed. He pulled hard, propelling himself toward the object. He landed shakily, his knees coming up to absorb the impact as the rest of his body sank.

"What the-" he heard from inside. He looked down at the car under him and saw flashing red and blue.

"Crap," he muttered. The cop on the left side poked his head out to look up at him.

"We got another one," he told the driver.

"No, you got it all wrong. I'm here to help," he tried to explain. Not wanting to waste anymore time or risk more injuries, he pointed both arms at the car ahead of them and fired. They caught the bumper. Good enough. He leapt off into the air and pulled, quickly releasing and firing another web at the roof of the car. He landed perfectly. The guy on the left poked his head out and pointed his gun at him. Midoriya fired a web at it and pulled it away before grabbing the guy and hauling him out of the car. He threw him toward a building and fired a web at him, keeping him stuck.

Midoriya grabbed the edge of the window and threw himself into the car, kicking the driver with such force that the other door opened and they flew out the other side. He threw him and webbed him up like the first one. Then he realized the car had no driver now and was going out of control.

"This is gonna hurt," he whispered. He got himself back on the car and maneuvered to the front. "Okay, okay," he said, bracing himself. "Okay!" He pushed his feet off, sticking his hands to the car, and slammed them down onto the pavement. He screamed in agony as the rough ground scraped at his feet. When he finally found his footing, he dug his toes in and lifted. The car came up over his head as he slid another three meters and he lost his balance, falling on his back and dropping the car behind his head on it's top. "Yep. That hurt." He rolled over, pushing onto his hands and knees.

"Stop right there!" Midoriya blinked and looked back. The cops from before stood there, weapons aimed at him. He groaned. He knew this would happen. Vigilantes were illegal. "You're under arrest, spider kid." He stood up as quick as he could, fighting off the urge to scream as his feet seared, fired a web, and pulled. He thought he would hear gunfire behind him, but there was nothing.

He found a nice looking roof to collapse onto. As soon as he let go of the web line, his body crumbled, falling to the rooftop in a heaving, bloody mass of flesh. He wasn't sure how long he lay there when the rooftop access door opened. He flinched and tried to push himself up to find the source of the noise, but the pain kept him down. He heard a soft, "Oh my god" behind him before he passed out.

"-The vigilante, police are naming Spider-Man, wearing what appears to be illegally obtained support items on his wrist." Midoriya groaned as he opened his eyes, the sound of the TV stirring him. He looked up curiously to the white ceiling above him.

'That's weird,' he thought. 'I could have sworn I landed outside.' He sat up, looking around the room. It was a single room apartment, almost devoid of any decoration. He sat on the couch across from the TV, a bed pushed into the corner of the room. The door opened, and he turned to face the noise.

A girl with brown hair walked in. Her cheeks were pink, and he wondered if they were always like that. She held shopping bags in her hands, and he noticed pink pads on her fingers. Her brown eyes lit up a little when she noticed he was awake. "You know, they've been talking about you a lot on the news, 'Spider-Man,'" she said, gesturing to the TV. She grabbed the remote from the coffee table beside him and turned it off.

He stared at her as she started pulling medical supplies out of the bags she carried. "Are you gonna turn me in?" She glanced up at him before continuing what she was doing.

"No," she said. "What you did out there, I don't know how anyone could be saying bad stuff about you. The way you threw yourself into harm's way just to protect people. I haven't seen a pro do that in a long time." Then she thought for a moment. "Except All Might, of course." She started unrolling a bandage and set it aside.

He took a close look at the girl and compared her size to his. "How'd you even get me here," he asked. "It doesn't look like you'd be strong enough to lift me."

She spared him another glance before continuing. "I'll tell you when I'm done. Let me see your feet." He just sat there dumbly. "We have to make sure you don't get an infection," she explained. He nodded and lifted his bare feet. She flinched at what she saw. "Alright, this is gonna hurt," she warned.

"What is-" he sucked in air through clenched teeth as she wiped a cotton ball over the cuts and tears. Rubbing alcohol. Right. She finished with the first foot and threw that cotton ball away then grabbed another. More mentally prepared this time, he held off on vocalizing his pain as she cleaned the other one.

Satisfied with her handiwork, she replaced the cap on the rubbing alcohol and set about bandaging the wounds. "There," she said. "All done." She smiled up at him then got to work putting everything away.

Midoriya stared at her for a moment. The determined look in her eyes as she treated his wounds was something he admired. Then he remembered his manners. "Thanks, uh-" he just realized they'd never given each other their names.

"Uraraka. Ochako Uraraka," she finished for him.

"Right. Thanks, Uraraka," he said. "I'm Izuku Midoriya." He took another look around the room. "Did you just move in or something?" He gestured to the mostly empty room.

Uraraka fidgeted uncomfortably. "Yeah, you could say that," she said quietly. She didn't want to mention the fact that she'd been here a month now. No reason to let on how poor she was. "I moved here to be closer to UA if- when I get into the hero program." She gave him a stern look. "And I'm guessing by the stunt you pulled today that that's where you're heading too?"

Midoriya let out a nervous chuckle. "Yeah," he replied. "If you don't mind my asking, what's your quirk?" Despite the circumstances, he was excited to meet another hero course hopeful.

She stood up and placed her hand on the coffee table. A pink light shone from where her fingers made contact with the wood surface. When she lifted her hand, the table started floating away. "It's called Zero Gravity. I can make anything I touch weightless." She pulled the table back to the ground and pressed her fingers together. "Release." Another pink glow came from where her fingers connected, and the table was firmly planted again. She gave him a shy smile as she sat beside him. "I know it's not the most impressive quirk, but I still want to be a hero," she said.

Midoriya shook his head. "No, I think that's an amazing quirk," he said. "That's how you moved me, right?" She nodded. "A quirk like that would make you a great rescue hero! You could move people to ambulances without aggravating injuries. Or move rubble away with ease."

He didn't notice how Uraraka blushed and looked away. "I always wanted to be a rescue hero," she said quietly.

"You'll be a great one," he responded, smiling.

"Thank you," she said, her blush darkening. A few moments passed where neither said anything. Not an uncomfortable silence. Quite the opposite really. But then Uraraka noticed what was going on. "Well, I better get all this stuff put away! Don't want clutter everywhere," she said quickly, standing up.

Midoriya scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Yeah, I should get back home. My mom's probably worried sick about me." He stood on shaky legs, trying not to flinch at the pain.

Uraraka whipped her head around to face him. "What are you doing," she half yelled at him. "You can't go anywhere like that. You'll just aggravate the injuries," she pushed him back onto the couch, looking like a mother who had caught her kid with his hand in the cookie jar. "Besides, you're my patient, and I won't have you walking around until I'm sure it's healed."

Now Midoriya was blushing profusely. "Are you suggesting I spend the night here?" He started running through different scenarios in his head. "No, I'll be alright. Thank you, really, but I can't put you out like that. It wouldn't be right after all you've already done for me." He stood up again, too quickly this time, and almost screamed at the pain. He crashed back into the couch, face scrunched up with the effort of keeping quiet. When he opened his eyes again and looked toward Uraraka, she was giving him a look that most definitely meant 'I told you so.' He sighed. "Thank you for you hospitality," he relented. She smiled at him and returned to packing everything on the table.

He called his mom to let her know he was staying at a friend's home. Uraraka had brought him some food. Simple cup ramen, but he insisted on paying her back for it. They stayed up for God knows how long, talking about nothing and everything all at once. He learned more about her quirk, and he told her more about his powers, though he left out how he got them. By the time they settled down for bed it was already one in the morning.

Midoriya decided that this was definitely uncomfortable. Not the couch, it was very soft and he could see himself taking many naps on something like it back home. But sleeping in another person's home. He'd never even had a sleepover with Bakugo back when they were still close. Eventually though, he did fall asleep. His world became black as consciousness left him. He didn't dream. He was too tired.

Midoriya awoke to the sound of an alarm clock going off. Morning. Time to remove himself from his very comfortable resting place. He sat up, lifting his arms high over his head in a stretch, sighing at the feeling of his spine cracking here and there. He turned himself so his feet hung over the edge and carefully placed them on the floor. No pain. He removed the wrappings and put on his socks that he had retrieved from his backpack. He finally turned to look at the bed behind him where Uraraka still lay, showing no signs of waking up. He looked at the blaring alarm clock. It read 6:47. He sighed as he turned it off. Gently, he placed his hand on the sleeping girl's shoulder and shook her. "Wake up, Uraraka," he said.

Her eyes opened slowly and she looked up at him. She took a moment to recognize him, then smiled up at him. "Morning, Mmdori," she slurred. "How's your feet doing?" She tried to pick herself up to look over the edge.

He chuckled at her antics. "Much better, thank you," he said. He hopped from foot to foot. "All healed up." She smiled up at him. "I'll be leaving now. Thank you again for helping me," he said on his way out. He heard her protest behind him so he turned back to her and flashed a smile. "See ya 'round." With that, he took his leave.

School the next couple days was interesting. Everyone was talking about the 'Spider-Man,' as they'd dubbed him. Some were positive, expressing how relieved they were that he showed up when he did. Others were critical, stating that a person shouldn't use their powers without a license. It was hard to disagree with them. There was a reason heroes received as much training as they did.

He noticed that Bakugo was strangely quiet on the matter. He hadn't seen the footage himself, but he hoped it was far enough away that he couldn't be recognized.

Training with All Might proved to be just as nerve wracking. Unlike the kids at school, he knew about Midoriya's powers. It was unlikely that he hadn't seen the story, so it seemed he was purposely keeping quiet on the matter. Which worked out for him just fine.

Thankfully, his mother hadn't suspected anything. She did seem to be on the positive side of things though.

The whole time he couldn't stop mulling over his encounter with Uraraka. Maybe he should have stayed a bit longer, just to show her he was fine.


	4. A New Friend!

**A/N: Two uploads in one day! I'm on fire!**

"137... 138," Midoriya huffed as he did his push-ups. They proved to be quite difficult with over 4,000 pounds resting on his back in the form of a car and a muscled up All Might. "139."

"So, young Midoriya," All Might started. "When do I get to meet this girlfriend of yours?" The boys arms gave out

"W-what!?" He turned his head to look at All Might. "I- I don't have a girlfriend!" He protested.

All Might considered this for a moment. "Then who's this Hatsume girl I keep hearing you talk about?" He set the car down and deflated, allowing Midoriya to stand.

He did so and dusted himself off. "She's a mechanic I met a while back. She made my web shooters. She's just a friend," he insisted when All Might gave him a disbelieving look.

"Midoriya?" All Might and Midoriya snapped their heads to the beach entrance. A girl stood there in pink shorts and a blue shirt. The thing that caught Midoriya's eye though was the brown hair and bright pink cheeks.

"Uraraka?" He called back. He couldn't believe it. She started making her way toward him, the shocked look on her face never leaving. He assumed he was the same. "What are you doing all the way out here?" Her apartment was on the other side of the city.

She ran the rest of the short way to him. When she reached him, she flicked him on the forehead with as much power as she could muster. Midoryia could hear All Might snort in a stifled laugh behind him. "Well I was just looking around the city for places to relax when someone told me about this place. But when I saw you over here I thought I'd come say, April Fools!"

 **A/N: No I didn't write this whole spiel as an April Fools joke. The next chapter will start mostly like this, so enjoy the preview!**


	5. The Torch is Passed!

**A/N: For anyone wondering why Midoriya has such an easy time talking with Uraraka compared to the original story: he's been hanging out with Hatsume for the past two months. And it's no secret that she's very touchy-feely, so it makes sense that he would get used to talking to girls. That's all!**

"137... 138," Midoriya huffed as he did his push-ups. They proved to be quite difficult with over 4,000 pounds resting on his back in the form of a car and a muscled up All Might. "139."

"So, young Midoriya," All Might started. "When do I get to meet this girlfriend of yours?" The boys arms gave out.

"W-what!?" He turned his head to look at All Might. "I- I don't have a girlfriend!" He protested.

All Might considered this for a moment. "Then who's this Hatsume girl I keep hearing you talk about?" He set the car down and deflated, allowing Midoriya to stand.

He did so and dusted himself off. "She's a mechanic I met a while back. She made my web shooters. She's just a friend," he insisted when All Might gave him a disbelieving look.

"Midoriya?" All Might and Midoriya snapped their heads to the beach entrance. A girl stood there in pink shorts and a blue shirt. The thing that caught Midoriya's eye though was the brown hair and bright pink cheeks.

"Uraraka?" He called back. He couldn't believe it. She started making her way toward him, the shocked look on her face never leaving. He assumed he was the same. "What are you doing all the way out here?" Her apartment was on the other side of the city.

She ran the rest of the short way to him. When she reached him, she flicked him on the forehead with as much power as she could muster. Midoryia could hear All Might snort in a stifled laugh behind him. "Well I was just looking around the city for places to relax when someone told me about this place. Now I'm thinking about kicking your butt for running off and making me worry like that." Clearly he should have at least waited until she was more awake before he left.

He threw his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to worry you," he said. "I just didn't want to take up more of your time." He almost flinched when her glare didn't disappear. 'Why am I trying so hard to convince her anyway? We're complete strangers,' he thought. "Besides, I'm all healed up, see?" He started bouncing up and down to demonstrate.

Uraraka held her glare for a few more seconds before letting out a defeated sigh. "It's fine. I don't know why I was even so worked up in the first place." She looked away. "I guess seeing you in a crumpled heap on my roof and seeing how you got that way, it made me want to help you." She sighed again. "As long as you're sorry, I guess it's fine."

Midoriya's cheerfulness deflated as she told him that. He hadn't realized his appearance would affect her so much. 'But would I be the same if the roles were reversed?'

He decided that yes, he would feel much the same as she did. He held his hand out to her. "How about we try again? My name's Izuku Midoriya, and I'm hoping to enter UA High to become a hero." She looked back up at him with a confused expression. He smiled as genuinely as he could.

It took a second, but she smiled back and took his hand. "Nice to meet you Midoriya. I'm Ochako Uraraka, and I'm also aiming to be a hero."

They released each other's hands. Uraraka looked like she was about to say something more but All Might stepped into her view from behind Midoriya. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we do have to get back to training."

Midoriya looked ready to protest, but Uraraka cut him off. "You're right, I'm sorry for interrupting you." She turned back to Midoriya. "I'll see ya later," she said with a slight bow. With that, she took off, pausing at the top of the stairs to wave goodbye. He smiled and waved back slowly, oddly disappointed.

"So she's going to be your girlfriend, huh?" All Might said from behind him.

Midoriya whipped around to face him. "N- No! Stop teasing me like that!" He almost flinched at the smug look on his mentor's face. "Look, can we just drop it for now?"

All Might raised his hands in surrender. "All right, all right. Subject dropped." Midoriya sighed in relief. "So about this Hatsume girl."

*

For the first time in a while, Midoriya was nervous as he pulled into Hatsume's driveway. He hadn't been there since the incident, as he had come to know it, and he really didn't know how she would react. He knew the technical side of her would be thrilled her "babies" had worked so well. But he was at a loss as to how the rest of her would react.

"Mei! I'm here!" He called as he closed the car door. He didn't hear the usual clangs and booms coming from her workspace. "That's weird," he said. Sure enough, she wasn't in the garage. He made his way into the house through the connecting door. "Mei?" He called. Deciding that she wasn't on the main floor, he went upstairs. She had to be home if the door was unlocked and the garage door was open. He found her room and knocked. "Mei, are you in there?" Several seconds and no response. "I'm coming in," he called.

He opened the door very slowly, just in case she was indecent. When no objections came, he entered. "Mei?" She was sleeping at her desk. Her laptop was open and looping the video of him web swinging. Several sheets of paper surrounded her, filled with equations and diagrams. He couldn't really understand any of it, but he guessed it had something to do with the swinging.

Hesitantly, he placed a hand on her shoulder and gently shook her. "Hey, Mei, you're supposed to sleep at night aren't you?"

Her eyebrows furrowed as she was taken out of her sleep. She opened her eyes and they focused on Midoriya. "'Morning, 'Zuku," she said as she sat up. She lifted her arms in a stretch. Midoriya looked away in embarrassment at how her tank top moved, the loose material stretching across her chest.

"Mei, it's five o'clock in the afternoon," he informed her.

"Is it? Guess I stayed up pretty late then," she said as she relaxed back into her chair. She looked up at him carefully. "Are you alright?"

Midoriya was stunned. This was not at all what he was expecting from her. He nodded dumbly. "Yeah, I'm fine now," he replied.

Hatsume stood. "Well that's good," she said. "Why don't you go wait in the garage while I change?"

Things finally returned to a sense of normalcy when Hatsume came out. Midoriya decided not to ask her what she was working on in her room. No good ever came from rushing her. Instead, she just went back to building whatever she'd been working on for the last couple weeks. She didn't say any more about the incident, and he didn't offer anything. He came out all right and that was all that mattered.

When Midoriya looked outside for the first time in what felt like forever, the sun was going down. "I should probably get back home," he said to himself more than to Hatsume. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Just as he was about to leave, he heard Hatsume call out behind him, "Izuku, don't do anything stupid again." Midoriya froze and his cheeks lit up.

He turned back. "I'll be safe, I promise," he said. Hatsume looked up from her tinkering and nodded.

After parking the truck back at the beach, Midoriya had time to think on his walk back home. He went over how he could improve his workout for tomorrow, how he could use the web shooters better, how maybe Uraraka would come see him. 'Wait, what?' He stopped dead in his tracks when that thought hit him. "Why would I be hoping for something like that?"

He was brought out of his musings when he heard a door slam to his left. He jumped and turned toward the sound. It was Bakugo, holding a bag of garbage. "What're you lookin at you little shit?" He made his way down the walkway to deposit the garage in the trash can.

"I was just on my way home," Midoriya replied. He started off again.

"Deku," Bakugo called. Midoriya stopped in his tracks. "If you thought I didn't recognize you on the news, you're dead wrong." That got his attention. "You don't want to tell me how you got your powers, then fine. But if you expect me to believe you're still quirkless, you're dumber than I thought." Midoriya turned to face him. "Powers or no powers, I'll still kick the shit out of you if you get in my way." With that, he turned and disappeared back into the house.

Midoriya was left staring at the door. He felt his hands ball into fists. "I accept your challenge, Kacchan. I'll see you at the entrance exam."

*

The next day when he went to the beach after school, Uraraka was already there, apparently waiting for him. Over the next couple weeks they became fast friends. At some point she had joined in on his training sessions, expressing a desire to make herself stronger as well, though in a slightly different way.

Uraraka had told him about the downside to her quirk: she became nauseous very easily. It only got worse the more and heavier the objects she floated. One day, Midoriya asked her if she had ever really trained her quirk before, and her answer left him stunned. "I'd tried training it before, but I always gave up before too long," she said with a small smile. "But seeing how you push yourself is inspiring me to do the same now. And I won't stop improving until I can float the whole city!"

Needless to say, hearing that he was an inspiration to someone else for a change left quite the impression on him.

Three months after The Incident.

The entrance exam was drawing close, a mere two months away. Midoriya sat in thought, staring out over the water waiting for the sun to come up. He no longer had a reason to keep going to that beach, but almost out of habit, he still found himself there every morning and every day after school. It was surreal to think about, that he had already made a visual impact on the world around him before he even started training to be a hero. The last couple days he had seen more and more people roaming the recently cleared sands in the afternoon.

"It's beautiful isn't it," came a gruff voice behind him. He turned to see All Might approaching him, wearing a jacket as the weather became colder. "You've done great work here, young Midoriya, and faster than I could have thought possible." He gave the boy a huge, toothy grin. "I'm proud of you."

Tears started welling up in Midoriya's eyes at hearing those words. Here was his idol, the one man he looked up to the most, praising him. Through the tears, he managed a smile, and stood up to face his mentor. "Thank you," he said with a bow. He felt a hand on his head and looked up to see All Might smiling brighter than he'd ever seen him, buffed up to be the hero everyone knew.

"For all your hard work, I think it's time for your reward." Midoriya stood straight and wiped the tears from his eyes, staring up at his hero stoically now. "This power that has been passed down for eight generations, I now entrust to you." He reached up and plucked a strand of hair from one of his bunny ear locks of hair. "My power is yours."

Midoriya felt the tears coming again, but staved them off. This was no time for tears. "Right," he said. He reached up to grab the hair offered to him, like the passing of a torch.

"Good," All Might said. "Then eat this," he said as he let go of the strand of hair.

There was a beat of silence, with All Might staring at Midoriya expectantly and Midoriya looking at All Might in confusion. "Huh?" The shock was quite clear on Midoriya's face.

All Might rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Well, in order to gain my powers, you have to ingest some of my DNA," he explained.

Midoriya looked back down at the strand of hair he held and took a nervous gulp. "Well then, here goes nothing."

*

Through the rest of the day, he didn't feel any major changes. He didn't really have time to try anything out that morning since he had to get ready for school. But the way All Might had described it to him made him think he had to consciously activate it. He wasn't about to try that at school. 'Maybe I can try it out with Uraraka after school.'

It surprised him at first that she kept showing up even after the beach was cleared. It really touched him when she said she wanted him to keep helping her train. And while there weren't a great many things left on the beach to help with that, Hatsume had been trying to find something to do with all of her old gadgets that she deemed beyond help. There were quite a few hefty robots that made the perfect objects for such training.

When he did arrive at the beach, he was happy to see Uraraka there waiting for him. When she noticed him, she turned to wave and flashed her usual bright smile. He waved and smiled back and jogged the rest of the short distance to her.

"Hey, hope I didn't keep you waiting long," he said as he stopped in front of her.

She shook her head, the smile never leaving her face. "No, I just got here." She turned back to the beach. "It gets more crowded every day," she commented. Not that she minded. It was great that this place was so lively again. But she would be lying if she said she didn't miss the one on one time with Midoriya.

"Yeah, but I do kind of miss having the place to ourselves." He missed Uraraka snapping her head around to look at him in his reminiscing. 'I guess I'll have to try out One for All another time,' he thought. "Now it'll be hard to help you with your quirk with all these people." She almost let herself be disappointed. Maybe she was a little bit disappointed.

Like a lightbulb going off in his head, Midoriya's face lit up with a smile. "Actually, I've got an idea of where we can keep training," he suggested.

Their apartments were clearly to small for the training they did and joining a gym would require money that neither of them had. So it was time for plan B. Midoriya walked Uraraka around town a good half mile, a trip he normally would have jogged, but he knew she wasn't as physically fit as he was. About ten minutes into their walk she started to notice that the shops and apartments became less and less frequent and that they were entering a more suburban area. It confused her. What could be over here that was a better alternative?

She still had no answer as he led her up to one of the houses. It was the only one on the block that had a two car garage, but other than that there was nothing special about it. She turned her head quizzically at Midoriya, silently asking for more information.

"A friend of mine lives here," he started. "The garage is mostly open space, so we'll have plenty of room. You just have to watch out for-"

BANG!

He sighed. "That," he finished. He raced up to the garage door, Uraraka in tow, and pulled it up, allowing billows of smoke to rise up from inside. They could here coughing inside and footsteps as they approached the now open door. "Mei, what happened?" There was no trace of the panic that would have lined his voice just half a year ago.

Uraraka perked up at the name. 'Mei? Isn't that a girl's name?' She got her answer as the person finally found the exit and stepped outside.

"Finished my last project and started on a new one. Looks like my calculations were a bit off," Hatsume said as she stepped outside. Her black tank top stretched over her chest as she reached up to brush debris out of her pink hair, causing Uraraka to blush. "Speaking of which, I've got something for ya, 'Zuku."

Uraraka's blush covered her entire face at hearing the nickname, but it wasn't out of embarrassment. She found she couldn't quite place what the feeling was. She wasn't sure why, but something bothered her about how close the two acted, with Midoriya grabbing her arms and checking for injuries like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"You need to be more careful before you start big stuff like that," he chastised her.

Hatsume reached up to pull the goggles off her face and rested them on her head. With her eyes no longer covered, Uraraka was able to see them clearly. They looked like crosshairs, zooming in and out of focus. Suddenly, those eyes turned to her and she jumped a little.

"I see you brought a friend." She smiled wide at Uraraka. "I'm Mei Hatsume. Nice to meet ya, friend of Izuku's!" She held her gloved hand out and Uraraka gingerly took it.

"I'm Ochako Uraraka," she replied.

As they let each other's hands go, Hatsume turned back to Midoriya. "So what's up, 'Zuku?"

Midoriya explained to her the situation, and she nodded along attentively. Her eyes shone when he got to the part about her being able to help with heavy lifting.

"I could always use an extra set of hands," she said. She turned her attention back to Uraraka, excitement shining in her eyes. "So what's your quirk?" She asked enthusiastically.

Caught off guard, she looked over her to Midoriya who looked at her apologetically. "Um," she turned her attention back to Hatsume. "I can make stuff float by touching it," she said. She demonstrated on herself by touching her fingers together. She lifted into the air a ways before saying "Release," and falling back down to earth.

Hatsume was on her instantly, questions and suggestions, along with a lot of muttering about how she would be able to use her around her shop.

Uraraka scooted away, leaving Hatsume in her analytical world, until she stood next to Midoriya again. "Is she always like this," she asked.

Midoriya shrugged. "You get used to it. This isn't even the worst she gets."

After calming her down, the three went into the garage to assess the damage. All in all, it wasn't too bad, aside from a few scorch marks here and there. Hatsume grabbed whatever it was she had been working on and tossed it into the failure pile.

"So, Hatsume," Midoriya said. She perked her head up and turned to him. "You said you finished something for me?"

"Oh, right!" She started rummaging around the workshop. "Where'd I put it, where'd I put it," she muttered. "Ah ha!" She popped up from under the main table and presented him with a box. She looked excited enough to be the one receiving a gift instead of giving one.

"What is it," he asked as he started working the lid off.

"Your new hero costume!" She declared proudly.

The lid came off and Midoriya just stared at the contents in amazement. Uraraka peered over his shoulder and let out a small gasp at what she saw. Midoriya pulled the suit out of the box and let it unfold. It was a one piece suit that would cover him head to toe.

"Go try it on," Hatsume said excitedly, nudging him to the doorway to the house.

He came out a minute later, surprised at how baggy the suit was. It was all black, save for the green spider emblem that crawled its way from his chest down his legs and up and around his arms. The main body of the spider was divided into its two parts, leaving the head separate from the body. "Do I have it on right, Mei?" He gave himself another once over and he could hear Uraraka stifling a laugh nearby.

Hatsume came to stand in front of him. "Yep, that's right." She handed him a mask, black with green lenses. "Put that on," she instructed. He did that and was surprised at how well he could see.

'Now that I think about it, this could help,' he thought. 'A filter for my overactive senses might be just what I need.'

He focused back on Hatsume as she resumed her instructions. "Now just press down on the spider head."

He brought his hand up to rest on the head of the spider insignia on his chest and pressed down. In a matter of seconds the suit shrunk down and formed itself to his body, feeling almost like a second skin. "Woah," he whispered.

Uraraka stepped up to get a better look at him. "It looks good," she commented.

"The material is special made by yours truly," Hatsume boasted. She grabbed a knife from the workbench and dragged it across Midoriya's chest. He flinched but marveled at how he felt nothing. "It's really strong, so we shouldn't have any repeat injuries from your first incident." Uraraka fixed him with a hard look at that. "And the material is thin enough that you should still be able to stick to walls. Give it a try."

Midoriya nodded and crouched down. He jumped straight up, flipping upside down as he went and his hands and feet met the ceiling. He stuck, as promised. He dropped back down and looked over himself again. "This is amazing, Mei!" A thought occurred to him, and his face lit up bright red behind the mask. "But, uh, does it have to be skin tight?" He asked self consciously.

Without missing a beat, she said, "Yep!" She went on to explain. "Part of your skillset is your agility and flexibility. You need a suit that can move with you and won't hinder your movements. Baggy clothes obstruct your range of motion." She gave him a sly smile. "So you'll just have to live with showing your goods off to the rest of the world."

Midoriya was pretty sure his brain short circuited when she said that. Uraraka turned beat red and looked away.

"And with that, there's only one thing left for us to do!" Hatsume pointed at Midoriya. "You need a hero name!" They all sat in thought for a moment.

Uraraka's eyes lit up. "I've got it! Spider-Boy!" She seemed quite pleased with the name.

Midoriya thought about it, but Hatsume wasn't having it. "No no, it can't be something childish. What about 'The Arachnid' or 'Wolf Spider.' Something tough and intimidating."

Uraraka looked thoughtful for a moment. "Then how about 'Spider-Man?'"


	6. Power Arises in Response to a Need

**A/N: So this chapter was originally going to be a sort of training montage with Deku learning to use One For All in the last two months before the exam with the exam being next chapter. But I had an even better idea. At least, I think it's better.**

 **P.S. Just so you all know, there's still plenty of time to make up my mind on the harem idea. It's not set in stone yet either way, and I've actually started setting up for both routes. My leaning right now is toward the harem along with a slight majority of the reviews. For now, I'll just keep setting both up before making my decision.**

*

"Now, young Midoriya, it's time I started properly training you on how to use One For All," All Might said.

Midoriya walked a little farther ahead, taking in his surroundings. "Is that why you brought me to the warehouse district?" Rows upon rows of mostly empty warehouses flanked them on both sides, with roughly a mile of open space ahead of them.

"Correct! I'm sure you're aware already, but my quirk is quite powerful. And until you can control it, I think it's best we practice somewhere with no people," he explained. "By the way, did young Hatsume design your hero suit?" He asked. He had to admit that the design was impressive.

Midoriya turned to face his mentor and removed his mask. "Yeah. She made the material herself. Although I'm still not sold on the skin tight look," he said looking down at himself.

All Might gave a hearty laugh. "Well I think it looks badass," he commented. "I do have one question though."

Midoriya perked up. "What's that?"

All Might pointed at his hand. "What's with the mask? There's no reason for a hero to hide their identity after all."

"Actually it was Mei's idea," he explained. "My power has my senses on overdrive all the time, so it makes it hard to concentrate when I'm swinging. The mask acts as a filter to keep me focused." He placed the mask back on his head, the feel of it almost comforting.

All Might nodded. "I see." He gestured to the open space ahead of them. "Alright then, Spider-Man, let's begin your training in earnest!"

Midoriya smiled under the mask at hearing that name. He could still recall how it had come to be his.

*

"Then how about 'Spider-Man?'"

Midoriya and Hatsume stared at Uraraka in shock. "Wait, you want him to use the name the news gave him as a vigilante," Hatsume asked.

Uraraka shifted uncomfortably under their gazes. "Well, it was a cool sounding name." She fidgeted nervously. "And there are a lot of people with similar quirks out there. He can just say he liked the name when it came up on the news."

Midoriya nodded in understanding "That's true," he said. "There are tons of heroes out there whose names are homages to older ones. It wouldn't be that strange." He tapped his finger to his chin. "And it does have a nice ring to it."

Hatsume stared at the two hopelessly before letting out a long sigh. "There wasn't a good angle on his face. I just hope everything works out. 'Cause if you get in trouble," she said pointing an accusatory finger at Midoirya. "I get in trouble. They'll take by babies!"

Midoriya backed up a bit, hands raised in surrender. "No one's going to take your babies, Mei," he said.

"They better not," she mumbled. "It is a pretty cool name," she relented.

"See!" Uraraka's eyes lit up. "Alright, it's settled." She pointed at Midoriya excitedly. "You're officially Spider-Man!"

*

Midoriya made a mental note to look in on Hatsume and Uraraka when he got back. He was eager to see how Uraraka was progressing with her quirk. In just a couple months she'd improved so much. The thought made him itch to improve more himself. "What's first, All Might?"

The giant of a man cupped his chin in his hand, thinking on how to best explain it. "I think the best way to describe it is-"

"Alright, I'm here, you big oaf. What did you need me for so urgently anyway," a voice came from behind them. Midoriya jumped at the sudden intrusion and turned to see a little old lady with a cane approaching them. He was on the verge of recognizing her when All Might's voice boomed beside him.

"Ah! Recovery Girl! Glad you could make it!" He turned to Midoriya, sensing his confusion. "Don't worry, young Midoriya. She knows about my quirk, and about you. No need to be on the defensive around her." Turning back to Recovery Girl, he added, "Today is young Midoriya's first go at using One For All. Not that I expect anything to happen, but you can't be too careful. Especially with the UA entrance exams coming up!" He laughed wholeheartedly.

He winced when Recovery Girl slammed her cane into his shin. "If this poor young man so much as pulls a muscle using this quirk because you failed to prepare him, I'll skin you alive," she said, glaring daggers at All Might through her visor.

All Might gulped nervously. "Er- Yes ma'am," he said.

Midoriya flinched when she turned to him, but was quick to relax when he saw the gentle look in her eyes. "Hello, young man. Nice to meet you." She eyed him up and down. "I hope your so called mentor knows what he's doing. You better be a lot stronger than you look if you want to control this quirk," she said, concern flashing in her eyes.

Midoriya's face softened behind the mask. "I'll be fine," he said. "I've gotten pretty strong in the last couple months." He turned back to All Might, ready to try out his new power.

All Might cleared his throat before doing the same. "As I wad saying, before we work on controlling it, let's get you to activate it first." He gestured to the open space ahead of them. Recovery Girl moved back to a safe distance. "Now, clench your butt cheeks, and yell with all your might, SMASH!" He threw his fist up in the air to emphasize. Recovery Girl face palmed and shook her head in the background.

Midoriya stared ahead uncertainly. He flexed his hands open and closed. 'Alright, I can do this,' he thought. He pulled his fist back, took a step forward, and let out a mighty cry! "SMAAASH!" His fist flew forward, and nothing happened. No tingle of energy or sense of overwhelming power. Nothing.

All Might frowned. "Well that's odd," he commented. He cupped his chin again. "Did you feel anything, young Midoriya?"

Midoriya flexed his hand open and closed. "No, I didn't. What do you think the problem is, All Might?"

All Might shook his head. "I'm not sure, young Midoriya. When I first tried to use it, it just came to me. I'm not even sure how to explain it really," he said as he crossed his arms. "Then again, I didn't have a quirk when I received One For All, and neither did my mentor. So I'm not entirely sure how it would react with someone that already has a power." They stood in silence for a time, mulling over that thought. Finally, All Might shifted. "Well, we're never going to get anywhere trying to force it," he said. "We'll try a few more smashes, and if nothing happens, we'll call it a day."

*

And so, Midoriya's first day of real training passed by without any progress. 'I feel like a failure,' he thought to himself on his walk to Hatsume's. As he came up on the house, he heard the sounds of the girls talking and laughing, and his spirits lifted just a bit.

He came in through the garage door, smiling at the sight of his friends having fun. Uraraka was keeping multiple items suspended in the air while Hatsume kept handing her stuff to float, testing the limits of her endurance. Uraraka's smiling face turned toward him as he entered.

"Oh, hey, Izuku," she said. "How did special training go?"

Midoriya just kept smiling. "It went great," he said. "I think I'll be much stronger by the time the exams roll around." Because he had to be the hero that kept smiling. If he let others see his weakness, he wouldn't be able to reassure them. And he wanted nothing more than to make people feel safe.

*

In the final two months leading up to the exam, Midoriya made no progress in his use of One For All. They had tried everything, including eating another hair, but no matter what they tried, the quirk still wouldn't awaken. He had started to wonder if All Might had made a mistake in choosing him. Of course All Might had waved off the notion and assured him he would make the power his eventually.

The morning of the exam. Midoriya sat on a bench at the station, waiting for the bullet train. He mulled over all that he'd learned from All Might. He had said that the quirk sometimes had a mind of it's own and theorized that this was One For All acting on it's own. If that was the case, there was nothing they could do to forcefully activate it.

"You're going to be fine, Zuku," Hatsume said firmly from beside him. He turned and smiled fondly at her. Her ability to have such unwavering faith in him was something he never understood, but he would never be able to express how happy it made him. To have someone trust him so completely was one thing he had always wanted.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the the sound of the train. "Thanks, Mei. It means a lot," he said. They stood as the train finished pulling into the station. "Alright. It's do or die time." They stepped onto the train.

*

Stepping off the train, Midoriya looked around, taking in his surroundings. If all went well, what he saw here would become a familiar sight. A waving hand caught his attention and he saw Uraraka waiting for him and Hatsume. She smiled brightly at them as they made their way through the crowd to her. "Izuku! Mei!" She called.

Pushing past a couple more people, the two finally reached her. "Hey, Ochako," Midoriya said. They started making their way out of the station. "Today's the big day." He turned to face Uraraka as they walked. "Are you ready," he asked.

She nodded and smiled confidently. "You bet! All three of us are gonna get in. Then we can see each other at school every day!" She started happily bouncing toward the exit, Midoria and Hatsume in tow.

The UA building towered over them as they approached, the massive wall surrounding it acting as the first hurdle to becoming a hero. If you earned the right to come back, it meant you were worthy of carrying on a legacy of heroism. Midoriya strode through the entrance confidently, wearing a huge smile as he walked. He had taken virtual tours of the school before, but the screen could only convey so much. "Woah. This place is awesome!"

"Yeah, I had no idea it'd be this huge," Uraraka muttered behind him, her eyes also alight with wonder. Loud, thudding footsteps approached her from behind. She turned to see a boy with ash blonde hair and red eyes walking toward them. His face looked like it was set in a permanent scowl, and it threw her off for a moment. Then she noticed he was wearing the same uniform as Midoria. "Hey, Izuku," she said, getting his attention. "Do you know him," she asked as he turned.

The smile on Midoriya's face fell when he saw Bakugo walking toward him. He had almost forgotten he would be here too. To be honest, he had hoped Bakugo would already be inside when he got here. "He's Kacchan, a classmate of mine," he answered Uraraka.

"Outta my way, nerd," he said as he came closer. He quirked an eyebrow when Midoriya didn't move. He stopped in front of him, staring him down. "Finally growing a spine, huh?" He took note of the hard, defiant look in his eye. "Well, not like it matters. You'll always just be plain old, worthless Deku." He brushed past Midoriya, making sure to slam his shoulder into his as he went.

Uraraka stared in shock. This guy had just called her best friend worthless. That was something she was not going to stand for. "Who do you think you are," she asked, walking past Midoriya. She moved herself right in Bakugo's path, forcing him to stop. "What gives you the right to look down on others? What makes you so special?"

For a moment, Bakugo did nothing but stare down at her. When she didn't flinch, he finally spoke up. "My quirk is the best one here. I'll use it to become the number one hero, surpassing even All Might. Everyone else here is just a stepping stone to that goal." His glare somehow got even more intense. "You're all beneath me," he finished. He moved around her and continued into the school.

Uraraka turned to face his retreating form once more. "You're wrong!" She shouted. If he heard her, he gave no indication of it.

Midoriya couldn't help but smile. It was the first time someone had stood up for him. He placed a hand on Uraraka's shoulder. "It's okay," he said. "I'm used to it. It doesn't bother me anymore." He could see in her eyes that she didn't want to let it go. She gave a reluctant nod and the group of three started heading inside.

"I never expected something like that from you, Ochako," Hatsume said. "I didn't think you could get that intense."

Uraraka stiffened a little. She really didn't like herself like that. "I didn't have many friends at my old school. I just want to protect the ones I have now, ya know?"

Once inside, they parted ways, with Hatsume breaking to the right for the support course orientation while Midoriya and Uraraka went left for the hero course. They were a little disappointed when they learned that seating was assigned based on school. "Guess we won't be sitting together," they said before reluctantly separating to find their seats. Of course, seating based on school meant that Midoriya would have to sit next to Bakugo. But as he took his seat the other boy didn't even acknowledge him.

The orientation was long and boring. There was a bit of excitement when a student from another school chastised him for muttering, and he swore he heard Uraraka giggling somewhere. When they were finally done with not only the orientation, but the written exam as well, Midoriya felt as though the life had been drained out of him. It seemed like part of the test though. A simulation of how it would be in the real world. A hero could be called on at any time after all.

The students were split into multiple sections and led away from each other. Midoriya's section was brought to what they called Battleground B. He could make out the tops of buildings over the wall. It looked as though they would be testing in a cityscape. Looking around, he couldn't help but be impressed by all the different types of quirks people had. His eyes landed on one student with a piece of support gear around his waist. 'I guess he must need it since they didn't allow my web shooters,' he thought to himself. Surveying the crowd again, he found a familiar patch of brown hair. 'Uraraka!' It didn't look like she had noticed him yet, so he started walking over to her.

He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. When he turned to find the owner of the hand, he was surprised to see the boy who had chastised him for muttering earlier. His thin glasses made his sharp eyes look dangerous."And what do you think you're doing," he asked. "Trying to ruin her chances by breaking her concentration?"

Midoriya was confused. Ruin her chances? He could never do that to a friend. But then he realized that this guy had no idea they were friends. He brushed the guys hand off his shoulder. "She's my friend. I was just going to wish her luck," he said. Without waiting for a response, he started walking over to her again. "Ochako!"

She turned her head in surprise. "Izuku?" A huge smile spread across her face. "Wow, we're in the same testing area! That's awesome!" She saw over his shoulder a guy in a blue track suit with his jaw almost resting on the ground. "Hey, isn't that the glasses guy who yelled at you in orientation?"

He looked over his shoulder to find him staring at them. "Yeah. He tried to stop me from coming over here, cause he thought I was trying to sabotage you." He turned back to her and shrugged.

"Well we did come from different schools, and the separation was supposed to keep people who knew each other apart," she reasoned.

Midoriya nodded. "Yeah, I noticed that when I saw Kacchan's testing area," he said. "Still, what are the chances you and I would be in the same group." He gave her a thumbs up. "Good luck, I know you'll pass."

Uraraka's pink cheeks turned a little darker at that. "Yeah, you too-"

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Everyone in the testing area turned their heads up to the roof of one of the buildings. It was Present Mic, the hero who had led their orientation. "Start!"

Catching on, Midoriya grabbed Uraraka's hand and started pulling her into the faux city. "Come on! There are no countdowns in real life," they heard Present Mic yell behind them.

"We'll split up," he said, letting go of Uraraka's hand. "Good luck!" He ran off to one side. They didn't have much of a head start, but it was something. Five robots came out from behind a building to block his path. They were all his. He jumped into the air as a mechanical arm came down on him and sent a roundhouse kick to the owners head. It came off with ease. "Two points," he noted. That familiar tingle raced through the back of his head. He jumped again, flying backwards in a backflip and landed on the robot's back. It was smaller than the first one and it's arm was outstretched where he had just been. "Three points," he said as he punched through the robot's back. He grabbed a handful of wires and pulled them out. The one pointer fell to the ground.

He stepped off the immobilized robot as more came at him. "Bring it on!"

*

Uraraka was left staring after Midoriya for a second. 'Split up, huh,' she thought. Hearing the roar of footsteps behind her, she darted in the opposite direction from where her friend had gone. Robots lined the street she chose. As she ran by them she placed her hand on them, effectively immobilizing them as they floated into the air. She didn't bother to keep track of numbers, she just needed as many as possible.

When the numbers started thinning out until she couldn't see any more, she paused to look behind her. She counted at least thirty. She made a mental note to thank Midoriya and Hatsume later. Just a couple months ago lifting half this many heavy objects would have had her on the ground puking her guts out. She tapped her fingers together, a pink light shining from between them. "Release!" They all crashed to the ground. She had no idea how many points she had just made. She looked at the timer. Thirty seconds left. Even if they were all one pointers, she was in pretty good shape.

She started moving again in search for more. A huge tremor shook the earth beneath her feet. Then another. And another. A shadow fell over her. Too scared to look for the source but knowing she had to, Uraraka looked up. A giant robot that towered over everything else was walking toward her, blotting out the sun. It's hand brushed against one of the buildings, sending massive chunks of concrete and debris to come crashing to the ground.

One came right for her. She jolted and turned the other way, running as fast as she possibly could. She felt the impact it made on the ground behind her and the next instant her back was peppered with smaller chunks, sending her to the ground. Her leg was caught. She was trapped. She looked back to the giant robot as it descended upon her, continuing to move forward, not caring that she was right in its path. All she could do was scream as it's foot came closer and closer. She clutched her head and closed her eyes as she waited for the end.

She saw a flash of green behind her closed eyelids. She opened her eyes and looked up, following where the flash had gone. What she saw made her jaw drop before a smile found it's way onto her face. There, high up in the air, she saw Midoriya, surrounded by blueish green lightning. She watched in amazement as he pulled his fist back and struck the behemoth in the head, sending it flying backwards.

*

Everything stopped when the ground started shaking. Midoriya could hear screams coming from the center of the field. He dropped what he was doing and ran to the source. As he got closer, he could see the cause for all the commotion through the buildings. A giant robot that towered over everything. He watched on in horror as it's hand brushed one of the adjacent buildings, destroying it and sending debris tumbling to the ground below. Through all the moving bodies, he saw a familiar black and pink jacket. Uraraka was well behind the other kids, almost right under the robot's foot.

The debris hit the ground, sending up clouds of dust to cover the whole field. Without hesitating, Midoriya ran right into the cloud. When it finally started to settle, he saw Uraraka pinned with her leg under a slab of concrete, clutching her head defensively. It was like his body was moved by an outside force. He crouched low to the ground and jumped. His eyes opened wide as he, quite literally, flew through the air. His spider powers had never been enough for him to jump this far or this fast. Before he knew it, he was facing the robot face to face. He pulled his fist back and let it fly. He watched in slow motion as a crater formed in it's "face", knocking it backward and tumbling to the ground below.

'What,' he thought. 'Was that... was that... One For All?' Then his stomach lurched as he started falling back to the ground. "Crap!" No web shooters. No easy way out of this one. He looked down, trying to find his best way of getting out of this when he saw Uraraka, flying up towards him. She held her arm out. He got the idea. He angled his fall to line up with her and held his hand out. They grabbed each other by the forearm, Uraraka's quirk making him weightless. Her upward momentum slowed them down considerably as they fell back to earth.

They were met with cheers from the students now surrounding them as they touched down. Uraraka gently took her arm back and released her quirk. Now under the influence of gravity again, Midoriya sank to his knees. 'That must have been it,' he thought. 'That must have been One For All. That felt incredible.' The horn sounded, signaling the end of the exam.


	7. New Powers and Old Friends!

**A/N: I'm not dead! Sorry, I know it's been a while since the last update. I've been working on animation nonstop recently. I just haven't been able to find the time for this lately. I write where I can but it's slow going. Don't worry, this story will continue! Also, I realize some things in this story are different apart from my obvious changes. I am taking a couple liberties with the source material, partly to help with consistency with these new changes, and partly because I'm writing most of this from memory. I don't exactly have time to go back and read the early chapters of the manga or watch the first season of the anime again. If you notice something that contradicts the source material, I'm sorry, it's just going to stay like that. Anyway, back to your irregularly scheduled programing!**

Midoriya's knees felt like jelly as he fell to the ground. A horn blared, signaling the end of the exam. Still, as exhausted as he was, he was equally excited. 'I used One For All,' he thought. He felt Uraraka's arm wrap around his shoulder. He looked over to see her kneeling on the ground with him. "Are you alright," he asked with a tired smile.

She nodded. "My leg hurts a little, but I'm fine."

"Alright, make way," someone said from behind the crowd of students.

Midoriya recognized that voice. "Recovery Girl!" he called excitedly.

The mass of students finally parted, allowing her to pass through. "Well you're talking, so that's a good sign," she said as she approached him and Uraraka. She gave them a quick once over before handing Uraraka a candy. "Here you go dear. This should help that leg of yours feel better." She went back into the crowd of students looking for more injuries.

The students made their way out of the testing area and back to the main school. There was still the final speech to be given by the principal. As they walked the halls, Uraraka talked animatedly with him about his boost in strength. "I can't wait to tell Mei," she remarked. They were so lost in conversation that they didn't notice the one person going against the crowd until Midoriya bumped right into them. There was a yelp and a thud as they fell to the ground.

Midoriya looked down in surprise at the girl he had just run into. "I'm sorry," he said. "I wasn't watching where I was going." He leaned down to offer her his hand which she took gratefully. As she stood, Midoirya was able to get a good look at her. She was tall, taking him by an inch or two. Her raven black hair was pulled back into a wild ponytail, and her grey eyes showed great intelligence. What really surprised him was the uniform she was wearing. It was from Minamori Middle School, a school for high class rich kids.

"No, it's alright. I wasn't paying attention either," she said as she dusted herself off. She finally looked up at him and offered him a smile. "Allow me to introduce myself," she said. "I'm Momo Yaoyorozu. I actually took my entrance exam last week. I was one of a few offered a place based on recommendation." Midoriya and Uraraka smiled awkwardly at that. Of course she was, just look at the uniform! "The teachers offered us to come back to watch the other tests," she said.

Midoriya scratched the back of his head nervously. "It's nice to meet you, miss Yaoyorozu. I'm Izuku Midoriya. And this is my friend, Ochako Uraraka," he said gesturing to his right.

"Heyo!"

"Midoriya, huh. You were the one that took out the zero pointer in B. That was very impressive," she said. She had to suppress a laugh at how red he turned at that. Looking around at the sea of people shifting past them, she started feeling anxious. "Come on. We should probably get going," she said as she turned around, falling into step with her new companions. "You know, Midoriya, you were all the teachers talked about after that little show of yours."

He went to rub the back of his neck. "Oh really? Guess I made a good impression." After a while of walking, he had to ask the obvious question. "So, miss Yaoyorozu, why were you going the other way from everyone else," he asked. They walked right past the door to the main auditorium where everyone was gathered.

She glanced at him and Uraraka over her shoulder. "You can just drop the miss. No need for formalities," she said with a smile. "Actually, I was looking for you, Midoriya," she said.

Uraraka perked up at that. "For Izuku? Why?"

They stopped outside a door. "I was asked by the principal to bring you to him. He didn't want to cause a big fuss using the P.A. system or sending one of the teachers for you," she explained.

Midoriya audibly gulped. "The principal... wants to see me?" A sense of dread filled him when she nodded. Her serious eyes suddenly widened in surprise and he heard Uraraka gasp from his side. "What? What is it," he asked.

"Izuku?" Uraraka was staring at him in shock. "What just happened," she asked.

"What? What do you mean?" He was starting to panic now.

"You mean you've never done this before," asked Yaoyorozu.

"Done what? Will someone tell me what's going on?!" There were a couple moments of silence following his outburst.

"Izuku, you just turned invisible," Uraraka said.

"Invisible?" His own eyes widened in surprise as he looked down at himself. He wasn't there. "A new power? I didn't know I could do this," he said as he relaxed, fading back into reality. It seemed as though it was tied to his emotions. While he stood, lost in thought, he didn't hear footsteps coming up on him from behind.

"Thank you for bringing this boy, Miss Yaoyorozu. You're excused," the person said. Midoriya and Uraraka turned around but saw no one there. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I'm down here." They looked down and saw a... dog..? Bear...? An animal of some kind.

While they stared, dumbfounded, Yaoyorozu gave a bow to the principal and left. "You're principal Nezu right? I remember seeing you on the news before," Midoriya said.

Nezu nodded then turned his attention to Uraraka. "Miss Uraraka, right? I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to wait out here," he said. Turning back to Midoriya, he said, "Young man, if you would be so kind as to open the door for me."

Midoriya opened the door and stepped back to allow the principal to go through. He smiled at Uraraka as he followed him in, closing the door behind him. Nezu climbed into one of two couches available in the room. There was no desk, it probably made it too difficult to get up and down. Instead, the coffee table sitting between the couches appeared to act as his desk, covered in paperwork.

"Please have a seat," he said. Midoriya sat on the opposite couch nervously. "Don't worry, mister Midoriya, you're not in any trouble. In fact, I'm quite looking forward to what you'll accomplish here."

Midoriya's eyes lit up. "Then does that mean-?"

Nezu smiled. "That you passed? With flying colors." He allowed the boy a moment to celebrate. "However," he said, and Midoriya's focus was on him again. "I'm sure you're aware of the law against using your quirk without a license. We have you on record for one, in the sludge villain incident." He shuffled through papers, looking for something. "But we also have this." He set a picture down on the table facing Midoriya. The boy froze. It was a picture of him from the news clip.

He swallowed the lump building in his throat nervously. "Principal Nezu, I-"

"You are exactly what this school needs," he said, cutting him off. "As I said before, you're not in any trouble. In fact, I've already smoothed this whole thing over with the police." Midoriya stared at him incredulously. "I just want us to have an understanding. I can't have my students going around using their quirks without the proper training. I don't want any more instances like this until you earn your license. Or I will have no choice but to expel you."

Midoriya dropped his gaze. "I understand," he said.

"Then you're free to go," Nezu replied.

Midoriya stood and made his way to the door. He stopped, hand on the handle, and said, "Principal Nezu?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you," he said.

0000

The sound of his phone buzzing brought Midoriya out of that sweet transitioning state between sleep and wakefulness. The early morning sun peeked through his curtains, illuminating the room with a soft yellow glow. With a groan, he groggily reached around for his phone, eventually finding it under his pillow. He checked the name and bolted upright, suddenly wide awake.

Within the hour he found himself at the warehouse district again, decked out in his spider suit. "Young Midoriya!" All Might exclaimed as he jumped in out of nowhere.

"All Might!" He tore his mask off. "I came as soon as I got your message." He ran up closer to his mentor. "What did you want to talk about?"

Even as All Might deflated into his true form, the smile never left his face. "Midoriya, my boy, you did great! You tapped into One For All!" He placed his hands on Midoriya's upper arms, feeling the muscle underneath the suit. "No change in muscle mass. Odd." He removed his hands. "But how did it feel? All that power surging through you?"

"It felt incredible! Like I could do anything!"

"Good. Now we just need to work on controlling it. We can't have you punching real people at a hundred percent like that."

Midoriya nodded. "That's why you called me here," he said.

"Exactly," All Might replied. "And to see how One For All boosts your other powers."

"Oh, that reminds me! Yesterday, after the exam, I turned invisible,"

All Might blinked at that. "Invisible? You could never do that before right?"

Midoriya shook his head. "No. It was really weird. I'm not even rally sure how I did it."

All Might cupped his chin, deep in thought. "I'd never heard of One For All giving people new powers." He thought for a minute more. "You know what? Training can wait 'til later."

All Might had refused to tell them where they were going the whole trip there. They landed on the rooftop of one of the taller buildings in Musutafu. It was bare save for the access door.

"Young Midoriya, we're here to see an old friend of mine. He doesn't know about One For All, but I'm sure he can figure out what's happening with your powers." All Might strode confidently up to the door. He turned and urged Midoriya along as he disappeared inside.

They took staircase after staircase until All Might finally chose a floor. He led them down the darkened hallway to a door at the far end and opened it, gesturing for Midoriya to enter first. It was dark inside, but light from computer monitors and small habitats lit up the room enough to navigate. One screen in particular caught his interest and he stopped to read what was on it.

He sensed something shift behind him. In a flash, he had turned and dropped into a crouch, ready to jump into action if necessary. The eyes of his suit narrowed as he noticed someone approaching. The first thing he saw was a lab coat and then-

"Dave!" The lights came on just as All Might shouted that name. Midoriya was rooted to the floor.

"Toshi!" Dave greeted back. "It's been too long," he said as All Might enveloped the smaller man in a bear hug.

All Might set the man down and turned back to Midoriya. "Young Midoriya, meet David Shield, my old college buddy!"

"I know you! Your a super famous scientist who studies quirks! Your gear is worn by some of the most famous pro heroes in the world!" He stopped when he noticed both sets of eyes looking at him with surprise. "Sorry, I'm a quirk nerd myself so..." he trailed off nervously.

"Hey, I take offense to being called a nerd," Dave said before his face softened into a smile. "I prefer the term geek myself." He stepped up to the young man, hand outstretched. "Nice to meet you. You must be that Midoriya boy Toshi told me about." Midoriya took his hand excitedly, squeezing just a little too hard due to his excitement. "Woah. Hell of a grip there," Dave commented as they let go.

Midoriya turned back to the computer screen. "Is this your new project," he asked. "This is really advanced stuff, gene splicing and all that."

Dave came up beside him. "Actually, this was sent to me by a colleague of mine in New York. Dr. Curtis Connors, you might know him." He waited while Midoriya nodded energetically. "He's working on a way for amputees to grow back their limbs using lizard DNA. He sent me this to fact check everything." He turned back to All Might. "So to what do I owe this pleasure," he asked.

"Actually, Dave, we're here on business," All Might replied. "Midoriya's been experiencing some abnormalities with his quirk. I was hoping you could take a look at him."

Dave nodded in understanding. "Sure, I can run some tests." He turned his attention to Midoriya. "I'll need a blood sample."

Midoriya lay in the bed of a machine much like an MRI scanner. He wore nothing but a pair of shorts they had provided him with. "Normal clothes would mess up the readings," Dave had said. A yellow line kept traveling the length of his body. Beside him, Dave was looking through his blood samples.

"Remarkable," Dave said. "Your blood cells are traveling and multiplying at an extraordinary rate. The oxygen levels are also off the charts. Midoriya, you're creating stem cells," he said incredulously. "The only explanation I can draw is this green electricity moving between the cells." The monitor across from the bed beeped, letting them know the scan was complete.

Midoriya stood up, wanting to put his suit back on for some form of modesty. But Dave had asked him to leave it off in case they needed to run more tests. Dave looked through the results. "Midoriya, I have a feeling there's something you're not telling me," he said.

Midoriya looked at him nervously. "What do you mean," he asked.

"About how you got your powers," Dave replied cooly. Midoriya felt a shiver run through him at the icy stare. "All quirks, mutation based or not, leave the base genetic code for a human intact. But half of your genetic mainframe is unrecognizable." His eyes narrowed. "Which means these powers of yours don't come from a quirk."

Midoriya let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "About a year ago, I was bitten by this spider at the Tokyo Research Lab. They were running tests on these spiders, I guess. Anyway, after it bit me, I had all these amazing powers that l couldn't explain," he said. 'That was nerve wracking. I thought he'd found out about One For All,' he thought.

Dave regarded him one more time. "Right," he said. "Anyway, going off of this data, it looks like some of the dormant spider genes are being activated, presumably by that green electricity." He turned back to Midoriya. "Put simply, your powers are still evolving."

The door suddenly burst open. "Papa! How come you didn't tell me Uncle Might was here," a girl called. Midoriya stood rooted to the spot. In the doorway was a girl. Her blond hair flowed smoothly down her back. Her bright blue eyes widened in surprise as they took in the sight before her.

Dave chuckled nervously. "Um, Melissa, this is Izuku Midoriya. Midoriya, this is my daughter Melissa."

Melissa's cheeks burned a red bright enough to rival the shirt she wore, the blush spreading as far as her ears. "I- I- I-" she stuttered. "I'm very sorry!" She slammed the door quickly.

The door opened again slowly and All Might poked his head through. "Sorry. I tried to stop her."

Now dressed in his spider suit and looking semi modest, Midoriya was brought out to have a proper introduction with Melissa. She seemed to have gotten over her embarrassment rather quickly. That or she was just that good at hiding it.

"Okay, let's try this again," Dave said as he came out with them. "Melissa, I'd like you to meet Izuku Midoriya. He's All Might's first pupil."

Melissa looked at him incredulously. "Wow, you're Uncle Might's student? You must have learned a lot of cool stuff about how to use your quirk!" She took his wrist and examined his arm, making Midoriya's face do it's impression of a tomato. "This suit is amazing. It's really strong but also flexible at the same time. Who made this," she asked excitedly.

"Um, a friend of mine," he answered. "She's entering the support course at UA."

"That's amazing. She's not even in high school yet and she can make equipment like this?" She turned his arm over to get a look at his web shooters. "I'm a support student too, so stuff like this always fascinates me," she said.

"Well it looks like you kids are getting along now. Play nice while I have a chat with Toshi," Dave said, dragging All Might out of the room. Midoriya just about blew steam out if his ears as his mentor gave him a thumbs up as he left.

"Okay, papa," Melissa replied. They stood in silence for a while, Midoriya just letting her examine his web shooters.

Eventually, he couldn't take the silence anymore. "So uh, I guess it's pretty obvious what my quirk is," he said, gesturing to the spider symbol on his chest. "So what's yours," he asked.

Her hands stopped moving and she looked away. "Actually, I don't have a quirk." She raised her eyes to meet his. "That's why I make gadgets, so I can still be doing something important even without a quirk." She saw him about to say something but cut him off. "It's alright. It doesn't bother me. Anymore at least."

Midoriya shook his head. "No, no. I get it. I'm what you could call a late bloomer. Until about a year ago, I was quirkless too, so I know how it feels," he said.

There was silence again, but this time it wasn't uncomfortable. Eventually, Melissa gave up pretending to examine his equipment and let go of his arm. She smiled at him softly. "Thanks, it means a lot," she said.

Midoriya and All Might bowed in appreciation as they left. They made their way back down the hallway. "So what did you learn from Dave," All Might asked.

"That my DNA is half spider," Midoriya started. "And that this green electricity is activating my dormant genes. One For All is actually evolving my powers."

"Interesting," All Might replied. "I wondered how One For All would react with a non quirk based power. That would explain why that invisibility power of yours never appeared until you unlocked One For All."

Once on the roof, Midoriya had to ask a question that had been nagging him since that morning. "Hey, All Might," he asked.

"Yes, young Midoriya."

"How did you know I used One For All anyway? I hadn't told you yet."

All Might's smile widened. "Because I watched it with the teachers of course," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why would you be..." Midoriya started before trailing off.

The smile on All Might's face just kept getting bigger. "Because, young Midoriya," he started. "You're looking at the newest member of UA's teaching staff," he exclaimed before leaping into the air.

 **A/N: Again, sorry for the late update. Took me a while to figure out all the pseudo science in this. I'd say expect the next one out sooner, but we all know that's not how this works.**


	8. First Day, First Trial!

A/N: Did ya miss me? I know it's been a while, but I've been busy with animation. It takes a lot out of you and doesn't leave a lot of time for other passion projects like this. Anyway, onto the story!

0000

Looking in the mirror, Midoriya adjusted his tie one last time. Satisfied, he stepped back to give himself a once over. The uniform was plain, a pale gray blazer over a white undershirt and dark green pants that didn't go with the rest of it. The most interesting part of the uniform was the bright red tie that stood out like a sore thumb.

"Ok, first day of school. No big deal, right?" He opened his bedroom door and made his way to the kitchen where his mom had breakfast ready. As they ate, His mom kept trying to give him advice on how to behave, what to look out for, among other mother hen worries.

"I'll be fine, mom," he said exasperatedly as he put on his shoes.

"Izuku, I-!" She realized she was worrying too much. "I know. I just want my boy to safe."

Midoirya smiled softly at her. "I know, mom. I'll be careful," he said as he opened the door. As he stepped out into the cooling winter air, he couldn't help but be excited for the coming year.

0000

Waiting for his train was painful. Sure it only took ten minutes to arrive, but he could have made it halfway there by web swinging already. 'But now the school's watching me. If I try anything like that, I'll be expelled,' he thought to himself. He almost jumped out of his skin when someone plopped down onto the bench next to him. Close enough that their knees were touching.

"Morning, 'Zuku!"

"Mei! Don't scare me like that!" He turned to see her smiling at him. Her head looked strange without her goggles on.

She replied with her usual smile growing wider. "I thought you had that tingling thing," she said.

Midoriya grew red in the face. "Don't call it a tingling thing! People will misunderstand," he whisper yelled to her. "It's like a sixth sense," he corrected. "And it only goes off if I'm in danger."

She couldn't help herself. "Aww, you feel safe around me, that's so sweet!"

Midoirya stared deadpan at her. Not the reaction she expected. "You've gotten way too good at acting like a person. I think Ochako's been a bad influence on you," he said. Suddenly he smiled back. "I mean you even make jokes now! When I met you, I couldn't get you to laugh at anything!" It was then that the train pulled up. They gathered their things and boarded.

0000

As they stepped off the train, they saw Uraraka nervously jogging in place. Her eyes lit up at the sight of her friends. "Izuku! Mei! About time," she called, running up to them. She grabbed Midoriya by the wrist and hurried him out, Hatsume hot on his heels. "We're gonna be late!"

Midoirya chuckled. "We're not going to be late," he assured her. "If anything, we'll be early."

0000

Midoriya and Uraraka stood in awe just out side their classroom. The door was a good twelve meters high! "Uraraka?"

"Yeah, Izuku?"

"Do you remember seeing any giants at the entrance exam?"

"I think I would remember something like that," she slowly replied.

"Just checking." He reached for the door handle. "Starting today, we're students of UA." The door slid open and they were greeted with shouting and loud crashes.

"Get back here, Kaminari!"

"Come catch me, Ashido!"

"I'll get him!"

"Stay where you are, Kirishima!"

"Please get your feet off the desk! This is no way for students of UA to act!"

"Quiet down, four eyes!"

"Four eyes!?"

Midoriya and Uraraka slowly turned to each other, then back to the carnage of the classroom. "So this is our class, huh," Midoriya deadpanned.

Uraraka checked the paper in her hands, then back up to the class sign. "Class 1-A. Yup. This is us," she sighed. She couldn't help but notice that one of the people yelling was Bakugo. "So he's in the same class as us." Her lips drew into a tight line. "Perfect."

The kid he was yelling at also looked familiar to Midoriya. He jumped a little when he took a break from yelling at Bakugo and looked over to them. "Ah!" He started walking over. "You're the one that took out the Zero Pointer in the entrance exam." The commotion of the classroom stopped as everyone turned to look at him. "First, I must apologize for the way I acted then. I had no idea you knew this girl beforehand," he said gesturing toward Uraraka.

Uraraka tilted her head to the side, confused. "Me?" She asked pointing to herself.

"He was the one I told you about that tried to stop me from talking to you," he clarified.

"My name is Tenya Iida. It's nice to meet you properly." He gave a slight bow.

"I'm Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you as well," he said, bowing back.

"Ochako Uraraka! Nice to meet ya!" She said quickly before bowing as well. Her cheeks grew red as she realized her little slip.

"Oh! That's adorable! She's got an accent!" The girl with pink skin exclaimed.

"Midoriya, Uraraka. Nice to see you again," came a familiar voice.

They turned to see another familiar face from the entrance exam. "Yaoyorozu!" Uraraka exclaimed. "How have you been?"

As everyone went around introducing themselves, they didn't notice the prone figure laying just outside the door. Finally they had had enough and stood, bringing their faded yellow sleeping bag with them. Uraraka looked toward the door again. "Ah! A giant caterpillar!" The rest of the class quickly looked back at the entrance to the classroom.

"Welcome to the hero course," they said in a tired voice. The class started quieting down, curious. The man in the sleeping bag sighed and started unzipping the bag and stepping out. "It took eight seconds before you all quieted down." He dragged his eyes over the class, disdain clear in them. "That's not efficient. You all clearly lack critical thinking skills."

Midoriya stiffened up looking at him. 'A hero? I'm guessing he's our teacher, so he has to be.'

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Nice to meet you," he said. He reached into his bag and pulled out a gym uniform. "Change into these and meet out on the field. It's time for your first assessment."

0000

In another part of the building, All Might was familiarizing himself with the schools rules. "Man this school sure is lax when it comes to teacher freedoms. They're basically allowed to do whatever they want.

The class slowly filtered outside to where Aizawa was waiting for them. They all clumped together and waited for instructions. Aizawa waited until they were settled before he began. "You've all done this before. Physical fitness exams. At your old schools, they would have made you do these without using your quirks." He looked around the class to make sure they were paying attention. "That's not rational. Times and norms have changed and yet they still assess everything the same way they did before quirks were born." He turned to look at one student in particular. "Izuku Midoriya, you scored highest in the entrance exam."

Confused, Midoriya pointed to himself. "I did?"

"He did!?" Bakugo shouted at the same time.

Aizawa tossed Midoriya a ball. "What was the farthest throw you could make without using your quirk?"

He had to think for a moment. He'd never thought to commit such a thing to memory.

"It's 43 meters," Bakugo interjected angrily.

Aizawa nodded. "Let's see how far you can throw with your quirk." Midoriya stepped into the circle drawn on the ground. "You can do whatever you like as long as you stay in the circle."

Midoriya took a breath as he willed the power of One For All through his arm, took aim, and pulled his hand back. The ball flew from his hand faster than anyone could keep up with. A deafening noise exploded meters from where the ball had left his hand and kicked up powerful gusts of wind that almost blew the other students back.

"You're kidding me. A sonic boom?" Someone gasped out in shock.

The ball flew and flew and flew until no one could see it. Almost half a minute later, Aizawa's phone beeped, telling them that it had landed. Even his eyes widened in surprise at the number. "1.537 kilometers," he reported.

"You sure you're reading that right, teach," one of the students asked. "I think you meant to say meters." One look from Aizawa shut him up.

"Oh! That looks like fun!" exclaimed the pink skinned girl.

"We can use our quirks as much as we want? Now this is why I joined the hero course!" another student said.

The whole class devolved into excited whispering.

"'Fun' you say?" Aizawa said. "You have three years to become pro heroes. Will you still think this is fun by then?" A decidedly unheroic smile spread across his face. "Alright then, just to make sure you're giving it your all, the one that gets the lowest score out of these tests will be treated as having no potential and will be expelled."

0000

"Ah crap. He got Aizawa," All Might muttered. He closed the book and hurried out of the room.

0000

Everyone tensed up at that word. 'Expelled?' Midoriya thought. 'It's not a problem for me, at least I don't think. It's everyone else. He's threatening to end someone's dream on day one.'

"We teachers are given the freedom to do whatever we want with our students," Aizawa said. "Welcome, to UA's Hero Course!"

"But that's not fair!" Uraraka shouted. "Last place gets expelled? It's just the first day. And even if it wasn't, that's a totally unfair punishment!"

Aizawa's sharp eyes turned on her, the smile falling from his face. "What about natural disasters, or traffic accidents? How about selfish villains who use their quirk for their own gain? Do any of those sound fair to you?" He paused for a moment to let it sink in. "Heroes are the ones we look to to turn those situations around. Our job here is to prepare you to be that person. So during your three years here, we'll throw obstacle after obstacle at you, each one larger than the last." A more gentle smile appeared on his face. "To overcome those obstacles, you'll have to go beyond. Plus ultra. Give it everything you've got right from the start."

The class was silent for a while, mulling over his words. All except one. "Deku!" Before anyone could react, Bakugo had a smoking hand aimed at Midoriya's face, the two just centimeters apart. "What was that? Huh? I may have never gotten to see you at your best, but I know for damn sure you weren't that strong before!" Suddenly he felt himself restrained, his arms pulled back behind him. He tried to set off an explosion to escape but found that he couldn't. "Wh- What the hell?"

"Katsuki Bakugo, was it," Aizawa asked. Bakugo turned back to his captor, anger flaring in his eyes. The thing keeping him restrained was the teacher's tattered looking scarf. "This is a capture weapon made of carbon fibers and a special alloy wire. Try all you want, but you won't be able to use your quirk as long as I have you in my sights." Eventually, the boy stopped struggling and allowed himself to be pulled face to face with his teacher. "I won't tolerate infighting," he said with finality.

Bakugo grunted his irritation but nodded in understanding all the same. With that, Aizawa released him and blinked away his dry eyes.

With the scarf no longer covering his neck, Midoriya was able to get a look at the goggles underneath. "Hey, I know those goggles. You're Eraserhead! You can nullify quirks!"

Aizawa blinked in surprise at being recognized. The other students started murmuring among themselves. "Eraserhead? Never heard of him," one voice piped up.

Composing himself, Aizawa faced the rest of the class. "Alright. Let's get to it."

0000

50 Meter Dash

Iida and this frog looking girl were up first. Midoriya watched them with growing apprehension. 'Ok, I showed off enough earlier. I've gotta make sure Ochako at least makes it through this.'

Iida finished with 3.04 seconds. "At fifty meters I can only get up to third gear," he commented. The pipes coming out of his calves were smoking from the exertion.

'Like a fish in water, I guess,' Aizawa thought to himself. 'I'll have to see how he does in the other challenges.

When it was Midoriya's turn, he made sure to run slowly, coming in just above Uraraka's time of 7.15 seconds. Bakugo's angry eyes wouldn't leave him the whole time.

Vertical Jumps

Uraraka ended up using her quirk to float, giving her the highest score. With that, Midoriya felt comfortable using his powers. Aizawa's eyes narrowed as he watched him.

As they progressed through each test, Aizawa started noticing a pattern, and was quickly becoming annoyed.

All Might came rushing out of the main building and found a spot where he could watch the class. "Good, they're not done yet," he said.

Eventually they came back to the ball throw. Bakugo stepped up first. "Give me that ball," he said. He walked into the circle, rolling his shoulders. "That top score is mine, Deku." He pulled his arm back and set off an explosion as he threw the ball. "Die!" He shouted. When Aizawa's phone beeped, he held it up for everyone to see.

"832 meters," he reported.

"Not as good as Midoriya's, but that's still impressive," one of the students said.

"I couldn't throw that far anyway," someone replied.

"Fucking Deku," Bakugo mumbled as he rejoined the class.

Uraraka stepped up next. She grabbed the ball, using her quirk to make it float. She took a breath and lobbed it into the air. It went up. And up. And up.

Aizawa held the phone up for everyone to see. "Infinity!?" Everyone shouted.

Midoriya anxiously watched everyone else make their throws, going over scores in his head. 'Ok, Uraraka should be in about ninth place. And I should be in tenth. We should both make it,' he thought.

"Midoriya," Aizawa called. Midoriya snapped his head up to look at his teacher. "I want you to throw again," he said, tossing him the ball. He waited until Midoriya was in position to speak again. "And just so you know, I'm changing the rules," he announced. The whole class turned to him. "If you don't get the highest score on this throw, I'll be expelling you."

Everyone was quiet. "That's not fair!" Uraraka shouted. "He'd have to beat infinity!"

All Might froze in his spot. "Aizawa, that's playing dirty."

Aizawa just smiled. "Technically, if he gets infinity, he still has the highest score. He'll be tied for first." Turning his attention back to Midoriya, he continued. "You've been holding back this whole time. For what, to make sure your friend stays in the game? Everyone here is giving it their all and here you are, barely even trying. You're just insulting them." He paused to let his words sink in. "Just make your throw so I can expel you."

Midoriya stood there shell shocked. He hadn't considered that. He looked to his classmates. Bakugo spoke up. "You were holding back all this time?!" He shouted. "I'm here busting my ass off and you're not even breaking a sweat?! Are you trying to piss me off?!" He tried to rush him again, but Aizawa held him back.

Midoriya looked down at the ball in his hands. "I'm sorry," he said. "I wasn't making fun of you guys, and I wasn't trying to spare your feelings. I just didn't want something bad to happen to my friend." When he looked back up, there was fire in his eye. "This time I'll show you what I can really do." He took a step back, readying his stance. "That high score-" he drew his hand back, channeling One For All. "Is mine!" The ball flew out of his hand so fast that most missed it. Another deafening crack split the air and before long, the ball was out of sight. After almost a minute, he started getting his hopes up a little more. He turned to Aizawa. "Did I do it?" The words were barely out of his mouth before the phone beeped, signaling the ball had landed.

Aizawa held it up for everyone to see. "2.388 kilometers, almost double your last throw," he said. "But not quite infinity."

"Let me try again!" Midoriya yelled. "I can do it this time, I'm sure of it!"

Aizawa looked taken aback. This was not what he had been expecting, at least not out of him. "I only gave you one chance, and that's all you get in the real world," he said.

0000

After gathering the class back together, Aizawa showed everyone the rankings. "Most of you performed better than I expected you to," he commented. "As to the consequences I mentioned earlier." Midoriya was ready. At least Uraraka would get to stay. "It was a logical ruse!"

There was a beat of silence as the class let his words sink in. Then collectively, they all shouted, "WHAT?!"

"You guys didn't figure that out?" Yaoyorozu asked.

Ashido turned on her. "Wait, you knew?"

Yaoyorozu looked away shyly. "It was pretty obvious," she said.

"Alright, everyone go get changed and meet back at the classroom," Aizawa said putting his mini projector away. He trailed behind the students as they shuffled their feet back inside. A large figure came and blocked his path.

"Why didn't you expel him," All Might asked.

Aizawa met his gaze unflinchingly and shrugged. "Like I said, it was a logical ruse."

All Might snorted. "Don't give me that. You've never had any problems expelling a student before. You see potential in him," he said matter of factly.

There was a pause as Aizawa considered his words. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said as he walked by.

0000

Midoriya was packing his things, ready to head home for the night. He looked up and smiled when Uraraka approached him. "Hey, Izuku, ready to go home?"

He nodded. "Yup, just about." He put his last book in his bag and was good to go.

As they were about to leave the class, Iida approached them. "Do you mind if I walk to the station with you," he asked. Midoriya and Uraraka gave each other a look and shrugged, then looked back at him.

"Sure," they said.

They walked the halls in awkward silence, not really knowing what to say. Eventually, Uraraka had enough. "Izuku, I've been thinking about something." Midoriya turned his head to her, giving her his full attention. "Well, you know how Bakugo calls you Deku?" He nodded. "Well, deku kinda sounds like dekiru. Like 'you can do it!' So if you just think of it like he's saying that, you can make it a positive thing," she said smiling at him nervously.

"I like it," Iida chimed in. "It does have a nice ring to it," he said, trying to be positive. Midoriya didn't say anything for a while. "But if you don't like it..." he said, trailing off.

Midoriya shook his head lightly. "I- I get it. It's just hard to get past, you know. I do appreciate the sentiment," he said. He flashed a smile at Uraraka. "I'll try to keep that in mind next time I see him."

Mei was waiting for them at the entrance. "What's with glasses over here," she asked, pointing at Iida.

Iida spluttered in response. "Glasses!? This is how you greet someone new? You didn't even ask me name," he said, arms flailing.

With Hatsume around to ease the tension, conversation started becoming more natural with Iida. They had almost reached the station when Midoriya's phone went off. He checked the caller id. "Sorry, guys, I gotta take this. Go on ahead and I'll catch up." The others nodded and continued on to the station. Once he was sure they were out of earshot, he answered the phone. "Dr. Shield?"

"Ah good, I was starting to think you weren't going to answer," David replied on the other end. "And I told you last time, you don't have to call me that. Just David is fine." He chuckled to himself. "Anyway, could you swing my the lab today, I have something to show you." Midoriya heard a quiet slap of skin on skin. "Ha! No pun intended of course. I want to show you something I've been working on."

Midoriya looked at his watch. He would have a little bit of time to visit without telling his mom. "Yeah, I can come. I'll be there in ten - no, seven minutes."

"Great! See you in a few." With that, David hung up.

Midoriya ran to catch up with his friends. "Mei, do you still have those prototype web shooters," he asked.

Hatsume looked confused for a minute. "I brought them to school to work on them. I figured I could build better ones with better equipment and it would be easier than starting from scratch. But I don't think I brought them back with me." She tilted her head to the side. "Why? Do you need them," she asked.

"What's up, Izuku," Uraraka asked.

Midoriya entered panic mode. What was he supposed to say, that he knew one of the most famous scientists on the planet? That he knew him through All Might? And Hatsume would bug him for a meeting. "I, uh, forgot I had a checkup with my doctor! Yeah. I just figured swinging would be faster than waiting for the train." He started on his way out of the station. "I'll just run! See you guys later!"

He found an alleyway and darted inside. He took his shoes off and started scaling up the building. It was slower than swinging, but hopping from roof to roof got him to his destination pretty quick. In no time flat he was knocking on David's door.

The door opened, but it wasn't David who answered. A portly man dressed in a lab coat opened the door, narrowing his already squinty eyes in suspicion. "Who are you," he asked.

From farther inside, Midoriya heard David yell, "Who is it, Sam?"

The man, Sam, turned and yelled back, "Just some kid!"

"Oh! That must be Midoriya! Let him in!"

Sam stepped aside and Midoriya walked in. It was then that he was able to get a look a feature he hadn't been able to see behind the door. Jutting out from Sam's back were four mechanical arms.


	9. New Tests and Not So New Enemies

Midoriya stepped into the room, cautious of the long metallic arms jutting out from Sam's back. "Dr- uh, David? What did you want to see me about?" He looked around the makeshift lab and noticed that everything had been moved. The terrariums that used to hold all kinds of lizards were empty and pushed into a corner of the room. Now, standing tall and proud in the middle of the room, was a large glass chamber, large enough to fit just one person.

"Midoriya, my boy, come in! Come in!" David came in from the other room and ushered him in. He turned and motioned for Sam to follow after them. "Sam, meet Izuku Midoriya. This is the boy I was telling you about. The one who will change everything!"

Sam snorted in response. "He doesn't look that special to me. Why involve a child in something like this?"

Midoriya looked between the two of them carefully. "Something like what?"

David turned back to him, a serious expression on his face. "Midoriya, what I tell you here has to stay strictly confidential. I'm sure All Might has told you by now about his diminishing powers. In a few years, the symbol of peace will be no more. When that happens, crime rates will definitely increase." He walked a little father into the room. "That's why I've been researching a way for him to regain his powers. And I just had a breakthrough!" He turned back around with something he picked up off the table that had been pushed to the back. "This," he said holding up a vial containing a green liquid, "is the answer. I call it gobulan green. With the right dosage, it will increase your strength, speed, dexterity, and agility. It's only missing one thing."

"What's that," Midoriya asked.

"It seems the good doctor thinks your blood will be the catalyst we need," Sam said as he walked past Midoriya.

"My blood?"

"Well, yes and no," David answered. "During your first examination, I discovered your power works more like a mutation than an actual quirk. Normally, just looking at blood samples or DNA tests, it would be impossible tell if someone was quirkless or not." He set the vial down and went to his computer. "But your DNA has been altered at a fundamental level." He pulled up the results from his examination. "This holds the key to your incredible strength."

He turned to Midoriya, the excitement evident on his face. "Don't you see? If All Might's quirk is failing him, altering his DNA in a similar fashion to yours is the answer!"

To say Midoriya was shocked would be an understatement. Bring back All Might's powers?

"All I need is a sample of your blood, and we can start testing," David continued. "I see a bright future for the world. And we're going to make it a reality."

It was so very tempting. A chance to save his idol who had done so much for him. He was on the verge of accepting. But a thought occurred to ho him. "What if it doesn't work?"

For the first time, David faltered. "I- I guess it's a possibility," he said hesitantly. "Of course I'd considered the negative outcomes as well as the positive." He paused, most likely to collect himself. "If I'm wrong, in the best case, it would mean a more rapid deterioration of his powers."

Midoriya was almost too scared to ask. "And in the worst case?"

"Because we'd be altering his genome," Sam answered, "it could have a... negative effect on his body."

"What do you mean, a negative effect?"

David sighed as Sam went on. "In the worst case, his body would become deformed." He focused his gaze on his colleague. "It's one of the reasons I'm opposed to this whole thing." Turning his attention back to Midoriya, he continued. "But I have faith in David. If he says it will work, it will work."

Thoughts racing, Midoriya took a step back. He needed to think, to collect his thoughts.

"It's your choice, Midoriya," David said. "But remember, great rewards come with great risks."

Midoriya had his answer. "In this case, the risk far outweighs the reward," he said. "I'm sorry, David, but I can't help you with this." He turned and walked out the door.

After the door clicked shut behind him, David and Sam sat in solemn silence. Sam wanted to comfort his friend, but he couldn't find the words. Eventually, David spoke up. "I still have to try," he said.

Sam's eyes widened as he looked at David. "But without his blood, there's no way it will work!"

David shook his head. "Something unnatural happed to him in the first place to give him his powers. And if something man made can do something that incredible, then I can reproduce it." He stood and went to the chemical station. "I can understand his reluctance. However, there is no progress without risk."

0000

Midoriya stood outside the door for a time, his mind trying to process everything that had happened. He couldn't believe that David was so ready to take such a risk with his closest friend. He was brought from his reverie by the sound of the elevator opening. When he looked up, he was pleasantly surprised to see Melissa there. "Hey, Melissa," he said with a smile.

She blinked in confusion. "Hello, Midoriya," she replied, smiling back. "What brings you here?"

"Your dad wanted to show me one of his experiments." He doubted David would have told his daughter he was working on something so dangerous, so he omitted the details. "He said to keep it a secret though," he said before she could pry him for information.

"Aw. Papa's been working on the same thing for weeks, and he won't let me near it," she said, pouting cutely. She brightened right back up though. "Oh, Midoriya! I wanted to show you something I've been working on too!" She unlocked the door adjacent to the one he was standing in front of.

"I thought you lived in this apartment," he said, gesturing to the door behind him.

"Nope!" She said cheerily. "I've got my own place, kind of." She opened the door and guided him in. "Papa pays for this apartment as well. He figured that one space would get too cluttered with both of us making things." The room was more brightly lit than David's, with small gadgets strewn about desks and shelves. "Now where was it," Melissa pondered to herself.

Midoriya's eyes wandered about the room, impressed with the sheer volume of inventions. His eye settled on one in particular resting against the wall in a corner of the room. It looked like a skateboard but without the wheels. "Melissa, what's this," he asked, moving closer to inspect it.

Melissa's head popped up from the desk she was searching. "Oh that? It's a hoverboard I've been working on," she said.

"Wow," Midoriya whispered. "You're really smart," he said dumbly. He had to refrain from slapping himself in the forehead. Of course she was smart, her father was David Shield.

Melissa blushed a little at the compliment. The fact she was a genius was always taken as a given. No one in her life had really commented on it before. "Thanks," she said. She turned back to her search, eyes lighting up as they immediately landed on what she was looking for. "Ah ha! I knew I left them here!" She presented the devices in her hands to Midoriya as he approached her. "New web shooters!"

Midoriya marveled at the contraptions in her hands. He gently took one from her and examined it more closely. It was a simple steel bracelet that held the firing mechanism on one side. "There's no trigger," he remarked.

Melissa nodded proudly. "The steel ring detects the movement of your wrists," she explained. "It won't fire unless you press your two middle fingers to your palm like you do for the other ones. Less chance of going off accidentally that way." She gently took his hands and put them on. "There. I was worried they wouldn't fit. Give them a try at home and let me know if I need to tweak anything."

Midoriya blinked at her. "You're just giving these to me?"

Melissa nodded, her smile softening slightly. "I make these things to help heroes. If these will help you become a hero, then I want you to have them, and make good use of them. I expect you to save a lot of people with these."

Midoriya smiled in return. "I will. Thank you, Melissa"

0000

Midoriya lay in bed, twirling Melissa's web shooters around in his hands, inspecting them from every angle. He wanted to test them as soon as possible, but she hadn't been able to figure out Hatsume's formula for the web fluid. "I'll have to ask Mei about it tomorrow," he said cringing at the thought. He knew she would be able to refit the cartridges to work with them, but he also knew she would really not like to be upstaged in her field. "A problem for tomorrow." He got up from his bed and placed the web shooters on his desk before turning out the lamp and heading for bed.

0000

"David, we've tried 28 different variations of gobulan green already," Sam said, clearly exhausted. The clock hanging on the wall read 4:32. Ever since Midoriya had left almost twelve hours ago, he and David had been altering and testing the serum nonstop. "Maybe it's time for a break." Another lab rat choked and hacked on it's own blood before keeling over. Sam retracted his mechanical arms from the glass box and hit a button, allowing the green gas to escape.

"No," David replied tiredly. "We're close. I can feel it." He continued to type away at his computer, running simulations of the formula mixing with DNA. Another red flash. "Damn it!" He slammed his fist on the desk and started again.

Sam went over to the docking station for his arms. Once everything was in place and they were lifeless, he removed the metal vest from around his waist. Free to inspect the device, he opened up a large circular plate on the front and pulled out the large disk inside. "We've gone through two batteries today," he commented. He placed it on the charging station next to the first.

Another red flash. "Go get some sleep, Sam. I'm going to keep working on this a little longer," David said.

Sam shuffled to the next room, aches and pains making themselves known. "You need sleep too. You're not All Might, David," Sam advised as he passed his friends work space.

"Yeah, yeah," David replied. He lost track of how long he sat staring at his computer after Sam left. Red. Maybe he should go get some sleep. Red. He could hardly keep his eyes open. Red. Maybe they really couldn't do this without Midoriya. Red.

Eventually, Melissa poked her head into the room. "Papa?" Her eyes widened in surprise as they landed on him. "Papa! Have you been awake all night?"

Red. David looked at the clock on the corner of his computer screen. Red. It was almost seven in the morning! Red. "Sorry, sweetie. You know how I get with my work," he replied with a tired chuckle. Green. David's eyes widened, all traces of tiredness gone. He ran the simulation again to make sure. Green. He ran it again. Green. And again. Green! "I did it!" He stood from his chair, new life breathed into him as he started mixing chemicals.

"Did what, Papa?" Melissa tilted her head to the side.

"I saved All Might!"

0000

Morning classes were normal, just like any high school. Most of the 1- A students were bored, but the more studious like Midoriya and Yaoyorozu busily jotted notes as they followed the lessons.

The Cooking Hero, Lunch Rush served top of the line food in the school's cafeteria. A student would be hard pressed to find someone with a home lunch. But it was after lunch break that things started to get really interesting.

"I AM-!" The students all perked up at the familiar cry. "Walking through the door like a normal person!" All Might sauntered into the room dramatically, finally striking a heroic pose behind the teacher's podium. The students all whispered excitedly among themselves as they stared in awe of the living legend in front of them. "It's time for basic hero training! This class will put you through the wringer and give you the skills you need to become top heroes!" All Might pulled his arm back as if going for a punch and shot his hand out, holding a card for the students to see. "Without further ado, let's get on to your first lesson! Battle training!"

Bakugo smiled. "Battle training, huh? This is gonna be fun!"

"Look to your left, students!" Everyone turned to the wall All Might pointed at. Several sections started started coming out, revealing cases with numbers from 1-20 on them. "Thanks to your quirk registry and special request forms, we have-!"

"Costumes!" The class cheered as they all clamored to get the case with their student number on it.

"Hit the locker rooms and get changed! Once you're done, everyone meet at ground beta!" All Might instructed.

"Right!"

0000

Sam groaned inwardly as he approached the door to David's lab. He had no doubt that they would be up all night again trying in vain to complete his miracle drug. He had just finished pulling out his keys when he noticed something wasn't right. Coming out from the gap at the bottom of the door was a familiar green gas. "What the-?" A feeling of dread filled Sam as he hurried to unlock the door. Taking a deep breath, he burst into the room. He ran his hand along the wall until he found a button, pressing it immediately. The air began to clear as the gas was filtered out. "David!" He called. "David, are you alright!?" He heard a groan coming from the other side of the room and hurried over to help. "David?" He crouched down next to the prone figure.

"Sam?" The voice was feminine.

"Melissa?" Sam stood back up and went to turn on the lights. The lab was a mess. The large test chamber in the center was destroyed, broken glass littering the floor. Ignoring the carnage, Sam went back to his friend's daughter. "Melissa, are you hurt? Where's David?"

Melissa slowly picked herself up, looking around the room. "I... I don't know," she managed to say before falling unconscious again.

0000

"A hero's look is synonymous with their identity. It's important to look your best! Get ready students. Starting today, you're all heroes!" All Might mentally patted himself on the back for his cool speech as the students all walked confidently into the testing area. "Are you ready, students?"

"Yes sir!" Everyone shouted.

Uraraka looked around in confusion. "Hey, where's Izuku? I don't see him here."

"He said he was too shy to change in front of everyone, so he waited until everyone else was done," Iida answered. "His costume looked pretty minimal so he shouldn't be too much longer."

"Sorry I'm late!" Midoriya ran in the entrance, excited to see everyone's costumes. He wore his spider suit with pride, opting to leave the mask off until they started training.

Yaoyorozu quirked an eyebrow at Midoriya's appearance. "Minimal, huh? That's putting it lightly."

Midoriya ran up to he friends, eager to see what designs they had come up with. "Wow, you look so cool Iida! Like an old timey knight."

Iida removed his helmet and smiled with pride. "Thank you. It's inspired by my older brother's own hero costume." He took a moment to size his friend up as well. "The design on your costume is impressive as well. Simple, but effective in identifying yourself."

"As for me," Uraraka said, gaining Midoriya's attention. "I wish I'd been a little more specific with my costume." She giggled to herself at how red her friend's face got when he saw her. "They went and made it skin tight."

"Being in the hero course does have it's perks," Mineta said. Midoriya shot him a glare that shut him up quick.

"We're all here then? Man you guys look so cool!" All Might couldn't help gushing over everyone's costumes.

Iida raised his hand. "Mr. All Might! Since this is the same field where we performed our entrance exams, is it safe to assume that we will be doing combat training for cityscapes?"

"Nope! We're moving on to indoor anti-personnel battle training!" All Might exclaimed. "It's true that the public most often sees villains outdoors, but most cases happen inside. It's where all the most cunning villains take their fights," he explained. "Between confinement, house arrest, black market deals, in this society of heroes, the most clever villains deal behind closed doors." He looked the students over one more time. "Now! You'll be split into teams of heroes and villains and fight two-on-two battles inside one of these buildings!"

One of the female students, Tsuyu Asui, spoke up with a question of her own. "So we're just skipping basic training then?"

"Practical experience will teach you the basics as you go!" All Might said. "The big difference between this and the entrance exam is that you won't be fighting robots, but living, breathing people."

"What's the win condition," Yaoyorozu asked.

"Can I just blow everyone away," Bakugo interrupted.

"Are you threatening to expel us like Mr. Aizawa," asked Uraraka.

"How will we go about choosing teams," Iida said at the same time as everyone else.

All Might was shaking nervously. "I can't answer you if you all ask at once. I don't have super hearing!" Clearing his throat, All Might pulled a slip of paper from (A/N: Oh, God. Where WAS he keeping that?!) his belt? "Right! Here's the scenario! Some villains have hidden a nuclear weapon in their hideout. The heroes must either capture the villains or secure the weapon before the timer reaches zero. For the villains to win, they must either capture the heroes or protect the weapon until time is up." He produced a box and showed it to the students. "Your partners will be decided by lottery."

Iida spoke up again. "Is that really the best way?!"

"More often than not, heroes have to team up with whoever's at the scene," Midoriya said.

"Oh! That does make sense," Iida said. "I apologize if I overstepped my bounds. My mistake," he said, turning back to All Might.

"Never mind that!" All Might threw his fist into the air in excitement. "Let's get down to business!" He pulled two slips of paper out of the box. "Team A is... Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka! Team B is Mezo Shoji and Shoto Todoroki! Team C is Momo Yaoyorozu and Minoru Mineta! Team D is Katsuki Bakugo and Tenya Iida! Team E is Mina Ashido and Yuga Aoyama! Team F is Rikido Sato and Koji Koda! Team G is Kyoka Jiro and Denki Kaminari! Team H is Tsuyu Asui and Fumikage Tokoyami! Team I is Mashiro Ojiro and Toru Hagakure! Team J is Hanta Sero and Eijiro Kirishima!" The students started dividing into their teams.

"I can't believe we're on the same team, Izuku!" Uraraka was practically jumping in excitement. "Let's kick some ass!"

"Yeah!" Midoriya threw his fist in the air. "We're definitely going to win!"

All Might shoved his hands into two lottery boxes, one labeled "Heroes" and the other labeled "Villains." "Time to decide the first matchup! The first two teams to battle are-!" He pulled his hands out of the boxes, a ball in each hand with a letter printed on them. "Team A as the heroes, and Team D as the villains!"

Midoriya and Bakugo locked eyes, determination lighting a fire in them. "The villains will enter the building first," All Might announced. "You'll have five minutes to prepare. After that, the timer will start and the heroes will enter! Everyone else will join me to watch on security cameras!" All Might approached the villain team to give them some advice. "Bakugo, Iida, I want you two to act as if you're really villains. Get into that mindset and don't hold anything back. I will step in if things get too heated though."

Midoriya and Bakugo glanced at each other once more before Bakugo headed into the building.

0000

Sam sat watching over an unconscious Melissa, laying in a hospital bed. He kept reprimanding himself for not getting to her sooner. He looked down at his cell phone again. The screen read, '27 unconnected calls to David.' "Please, David," he whispered. "Come back to your daughter."

0000

Iida paced around the room housing the 'nuclear weapon.' "Even if it's just training, playing the part of a villain is painful." He knocked on the fake warhead experimentally. "All we have to do is keep this safe, huh?"

"Hey, four eyes," Bakugo said. "How powerful would you say, Deku is?"

Iida thought for a moment. "It's tough to say," he said. "To me, his strength seems comparable to All Might. Not only that, but he has so many other abilities as well." He turned to his partner. "I'll advise you not to charge at him head on."

Bakugo ignored Iida's warning. 'That damn nerd. I thought I had him gauged but he was hiding his real strength from me this whole time?'

0000

"We don't have much time, so we better memorize the blueprints All Might gave us," Uraraka said. She noticed her friend was being unusually quiet. "Izuku? Are you alright?"

Midoriya's head perked up and he turned to face her fully. "Yeah, I'm fine." He turned back to the building. "It's just that we're going up against Kachan. He's a world class jerk, but he knows his stuff." He smiled. "That and... I'm kind of excited for this fight. For the first time in my life, I have a real chance at beating him."

Uraraka smiled at him. "A battle between rivals, huh? Sounds exciting!"

A voice sounded over the area. "Indoor Anti-Personnel Battle Training Start!"

In the monitor room with the rest of the students, All Might pulled out a clipboard and pen. "Watch closely students," he said to the class. "Try to learn something from this!" He turned his attention back to the monitors. 'Young Midoriya, in this class, you're just another pupil. You'll get no special treatment from me.'

"Time to go," Midoriya said, pulling his mask over his head. "Remember the plan." He jumped onto the wall and started scaling the side of the building. Uraraka used her quirk to float up alongside him. They made it up five floors and peeked into a window. "There's the weapon," he pointed out. "And Iida's with it. Crap."

They could faintly hear Iida's voice through the glass. "Damn that Bakugo. He ran off without even thinking twice. Now the weapon is more vulnerable."

Midoriya looked over to his partner and pointed down. Uraraka nodded and they went to a window on the floor below and entered there. "Okay," Midoriya said. "We gotta find a way to get past Iida. Any ideas?"

Uraraka placed her hand on her chin as she thought. "You could try turning invisible, like you did after the entrance exam. You could walk right in and he wouldn't even notice."

Midoriya shook his head. "I can't control it. It just sorta happens." He looked around carefully. "Anyway, we shouldn't be standing around like this. They'll be more likely to find us." Uraraka nodded in agreement. "For now, let's find the stairs to the next floor." They hadn't made it five steps before Midoriya felt that tingling in the back of his head. "Wait!" He quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into him just as she was about to pass an intersection in the hallway.

From their right came a massive explosion, and following not far behind it was Bakugo. "I got ya now, ya damn nerd!" He landed in the middle of the hallway, righting himself so he could stare down his nose at his opponents. "Nice dodge, Deku."

Midoriya was immediately on the defensive, putting himself between Bakugo and Uraraka and slipping into a fighting stance. "Crap! How did he know we'd be up here?"

"I know you can climb walls, dumbass," Bakugo shouted. "And now that I got you here-!" He pulled his arm back, ready to unleash another fireball. "I'm gonna mess you up just enough to not be disqualified!" He flew forward, arm stretching out before him and sparks already forming in the palm of his hand. But he didn't expect to suddenly be looking at the back of his target's head. And he really didn't expect Deku to grab his arm and throw him to the ground.

Midoriya slid his left foot to the right with practiced ease, doing an about face as he reached behind his shoulder to grab Bakugo's outstretched arm. Using his own momentum against him, Midoriya launched him forward and slammed his back into the ground below him, knocking the air from his lungs. While Bakugo was still gasping for breath, Midoriya aimed his web shooters at him and covered him in enough webbing to glue him to the ground.

"That was awesome, Izuku!" Uraraka cheered. She paused though when she saw the webbing around Bakugo's hands start to catch fire.

All Might had to admit, he was impressed with Bakugo's quick and rational mind in a pinch. 'He doesn't want to blow himself up, so he's creating just enough sparks to burn the web away. Very clever, young Bakugo.'

Midoriya turned to look at Uraraka over his shoulder. "I'll handle this! You get to Iida and that bomb!" Uraraka nodded in understanding and took off down the hall. With her gone, Midoriya looked back down at Bakugo.

The webbing pinning Bakugo had almost all burned away and he pulled himself up. "You think just because you have a quirk now that you're a match for me?" He fell into a fighting stance of his own. "With or without a quirk, you'll still always be the same worthless Deku!" He clicked his tongue in annoyance when he heard the receiver in his ear crackle to life.

"Hey, Bakugo! I need an update. What's the situation," Iida's voice came through the receiver.

"Shut up!" Bakugo yelled back. "Just stay where you are and keep watch! I'm fighting right now, and if you interfere, I'll kill you." He took the receiver from his ear and threw it to the ground, ignoring his partner's annoying voice.

"I can't hear what they're saying," Kirishima said. "The cameras don't have sound."

All Might spoke up. "They're communicating with micro transceivers," he explained. "When I was preparing the teams, I gave them the receivers, blueprints, and this!" He held up a roll of something. "Capture tape! If you can wrap this around your opponent once, it means you successfully captured them and they're out of the game!"

"So they have the blueprints, but the heroes don't actually know where the weapon is. And they only have fifteen minutes to find it? Doesn't that put the hero team at a huge disadvantage," Ashido asked.

Yaoyorozu spoke up before All Might. "Ordinary, yes. But earlier, I saw Midoriya's mask through the window on the weapon room camera. They know where it is."

All Might faltered for a moment. "They're putting their knowledge to great use! Remember what Aizawa told you? Say it with me now. Plus Ultra!" He was happy to see the kids getting into it.

Bakugo charged forward again, this time jumping up and using an explosion to propel himself over Midoriya. He almost choked on his own spit when he felt hands grab at his ankles and pull him back down. He hit the ground for the second time in a row and that God damn webbing pinning him to the ground again. He looked down the length of his body and started panicking when Midoriya pulled out the capture tape. He started frantically struggling against his restraints, throwing caution to the wind as he started igniting explosions in his hands.

Unfortunately for Bakugo, it was too little, too late. In an instant, Midoriya had the capture tape wrapped around his neck. He wanted to scream to the high heavens, rules be damned, and continue fighting. But he knew doing so would result in a bad time for him. As Midoriya walked away, he screamed his frustration anyway.

0000

Iida paced around the room, admittedly frustrated with Bakugo's uncooperativeness. He decided that mulling over it would do him no good, so he thought back to what All Might had said to them before the start. 'Get into the mindset of a villain.'

"It pains me to do this, but I must take on the role of a villain," Iida said. "I will become the embodiment of evil! Hahahahaha!"

Uraraka, who had managed to sneak into the room while Iida's back was turned, struggled to hold in her giggling fit at his antics. 'Calm down. Deep breaths. He doesn't know I'm here. That's good.' She found herself very grateful for all those afternoons she spent training her quirk with Midoriya. The her from last year wouldn't even dream of trying something like this. She tapped her fingers together and allowed herself to float up to the ceiling.

Uraraka carefully and quietly maneuvered herself so she was right above the target. All she had to do was touch it to win. She pushed off the ceiling and floated down toward the weapon.

Iida's eyes suddenly snapped toward her. "Did you really think I wouldn't know you were there, hero?" He ran at the weapon and pushed it out of Uraraka's reach. She gasped as she realized she'd been caught. "When you're suspended like that, you have no way of changing direction. I must thank you for your foolishness, hero!" He started running at her, the flames coming from his legs turning a blinding blue. "Evil!" He used the momentum to jump up to meet her in the air. "Recipro!" He cocked one of his legs back. "Burst!" His leg collided with her stomach, as expected. What he did not expect was for her to grab onto his leg. "Hey! Let go!" His eyes widened in realization as he saw the pink light shine from where her fingertips met the back of his leg.

Uraraka lifted her head to look Iida dead in the eye, her own filled with the pain of the kick, but also a sense of triumph. "Got you!" She used his body as a point of leverage and pushed herself toward the weapon. The class watching on the monitors held their breath as her fingertips touched the target.

All Might's voice rang out loud and clear through the faux city. "The hero team... WINS!"


	10. Heads Up!

Hey, everyone! I just want to let you know that it'll be a while before the next update happens. I like to think that I've gotten better at writing over these 8 chapters, and looking back at the early story, I'm not very happy with it. So I'm going to take the time to rewrite most of it. But don't worry! When it's done, I'll let you know with a brand new chapter! It will be one of three new chapters that will go up at the same time to replace this and the April Fools chapter. However, if you'd rather not go back and read everything again when that happens, it won't really affect where the story is now, just how we got there. Until then, remember to go beyond! Plus Ultra!


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